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Impeachment inquiry will likely stall legislative agenda
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces a formal impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
While the outcome of the impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives is hard to predict, one thing is a given, says Rob Shapiro, a senior fellow of the Georgetown School of Business and the chairman of economic advisory firm Sonecon: these inquiries polarize political parties.
“The intensification of the partisan polarization generally precludes any significant legislation,” Shapiro said. “The first defense of any president under threat of impeachment is that it’s a partisan attack.”
If there’s legislative progress to be made, however, it could be on a vote on the USMCA, the updated NAFTA deal with Canada and Mexico.
“It’s something that could rise up to the level of ‘must-do,’ something that members would rather get done before we’re into a full-blown election season next year,” said Edward Mills, a Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, who said he expects the impeachment inquiry to overshadow most everything else.
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