From all those who have taken part in past impeachments have said there has to be a full vote of the house before a impeachment can commence or the full legals powers of subpoena's can be implemented. The only legal recourse the house has is to take it to court to weight it out, they don't even have the power to issue arrest for anyone not complying.

There was an interesting discussion tonight that made a whole lot of sense on why the democrats are taking this route. It's to pacify the progressive base who ran and promised to impeach the president. They know this is failed to doom as the senate will just kick it out without a hearing as it's based on unconstitutional methods of impeachment. They know full well this isn't going to lead to him being impeached but it will lead their sheeple to be happy they tried.