TEHRAN — The U.S. House of Representatives was scheduled to vote Tuesday evening on whether to advance the impeachment of “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth, after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie used a privileged resolution to force the issue onto the floor on Congress’s first day back from the midterm elections. A procedural vote to table the measure is expected first.

Massie, a Kentucky Republican who lost his primary and leaves office at the end of the year, read eight articles of impeachment from the House floor Monday.

The 34-page resolution accuses Hegseth of launching and sustaining an unauthorized war against Iran, dismantling civilian-protection safeguards, overseeing lethal maritime operations, retaliating against a senator, and directing the seizure of Venezuela’s president.

Because the measure was introduced as privileged business, House leaders had two legislative days to schedule action.

Speaker Mike Johnson had previously sent lawmakers home early in September rather than allow an earlier version of the resolution to reach the floor.

Massie did not frame the case as a dispute over competence. “We’re not indicting him for being bad at his job,” he told reporters. “In fact, he was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran.” He said the articles allege that Hegseth has “broken laws” and “violated the Constitution.”

What Massie alleges

Three articles center on the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

Massie says Hegseth began hostilities against Iran on February 28 without a declaration of war, statutory authorization, an attack on the United States, or an imminent threat.

He says the secretary kept the war going after Congress passed a resolution calling for withdrawal and after the law’s 60-day termination period and 30-day withdrawal window expired.

The remaining articles broaden the accusation. Massie alleges that Hegseth replaced law-enforcement rules in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific with military targeting of suspected drug traffickers, resulting in at least 243 deaths.

The resolution says some survivors were denied quarter, struck again after their vessels were disabled, or left without rescue.

It also accuses Hegseth of directing the January seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, an operation Massie says killed at least 83 people, including civilians, while seven Americans injured.

Another article alleges retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly after the Arizona Democrat publicly warned service members against following unlawful orders.

The final article concerns Yemen. Massie says Hegseth directed a campaign that killed more than 700 people, nearly a third of them civilians. The Pentagon’s own 2025 report acknowledged 153 civilian deaths in Yemen.

The Minab school strike

The gravest allegation concerns the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, southern Iran. On February 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war, Tomahawk missiles struck the school while children were inside.

Iranian authorities put the death toll at 156 or higher, including adults and children. Independent counts put the number of children killed at roughly 120, most of them girls between seven and twelve.

26 teachers died. Parents who had come to collect their children, a bus driver, and a pharmacy worker were also among the dead.

A United Nations fact-finding mission later found reasonable grounds to conclude that U.S. forces carried out the strike, that it was indiscriminate, and that it amounted to a war crime. The mission said the school was a civilian object and that there was no evidence it was being used for military purposes that day.

Massie argues the strike was not an isolated failure. His fourth article says Hegseth dismantled congressionally mandated civilian-harm mitigation systems, pushed out oversight officials, and removed civilian protection from defense strategy.

Hegseth has publicly promoted “maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” and commanders reportedly opposed cuts to the program meant to reduce civilian deaths.

Lamerd and the wider toll

Minab was not the only strike under scrutiny. That same day, a missile hit a sports complex and nearby homes in Lamerd.

The UN mission counted at least 22 civilians dead, including children, and said Precision Strike Missiles scattered tungsten pellets across a civilian area. It reached the same conclusion as in the case of Minab: the attack was indiscriminate and unlawful.

CENTCOM has denied striking Lamerd and blamed Iran. Weapons experts consulted by BBC Verify said the damage was more consistent with a U.S. Precision Strike Missile than an Iranian weapon.

In early September, a U.S. strike near a wedding in Kuhestak, in Sirik county, killed at least four people and wounded more than 60. Investigations by The New York Times and the BBC concluded that a U.S. missile was responsible.

The UN mission concluded on September 17 that the United States likely committed war crimes in Minab and Lamerd, which together killed at least 178 civilians. It said Washington failed to take all feasible precautions to verify that the school was a military target.

The political arithmetic

Hegseth dismissed the effort Tuesday morning as a “political spectacle.” Trump called Massie a “stone-cold loser” and said Hegseth had “won two wars.” The White House has urged Republicans to close ranks.

But the vote is no longer easy to avoid. Massie’s privileged resolution requires action within two legislative days, and House leaders can choose among a direct vote, a motion to table, or a committee referral.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has called himself a “hard yes.” Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, predicts passage.

If every Democrat supports impeachment, Massie needs three Republicans. Rep. Don Bacon has said he is “wrestling” with the question. Johnson has called impeachment during hostilities a “terrible, terrible look.”

Even if the House approves the articles, removal remains unlikely. The Senate would need 67 votes to convict, and Democrats are expected to hold about 54 seats. The vote would therefore become a record rather than a removal.

Massie has little to lose. He lost his primary to a challenger backed by Trump and the Israel Lobby, and his term ends this year.

That freedom has made him more willing than most Republicans to force a vote that exposes the cost of the war and the legal limits the administration chose to ignore.