By ALAN FRAM and MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats rammed a package of ground rules for their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump through a sharply divided House Thursday, the chamber’s first formal vote in a fight that could stretch into the 2020 election year.

The tally was 232-196, with all Republicans who voted opposing the resolution and just two Democratic defectors joining them: freshman Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and 15-term veteran Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, one of his party’s most conservative members. Both represent GOP-leaning districts.

The vote laid down the rules as lawmakers transition from weeks of closed-door interviews with witnesses to public hearings and ultimately to possible votes on whether to recommend Trump’s removal from office.

The action also took on more than technical meaning, with each party aware that the impeachment effort looms as a defining issue for next year’s presidential and congressional campaigns.

The vote, which occurred on Halloween, drew a familiar Twitter retort from Trump: “The greatest Witch Hunt in American History!”

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats of an “unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding.”

“What is at stake in all this is nothing less than our democracy,” said Pelosi. Underscoring her point, she addressed the House with a poster of the American flag beside her and began her remarks by reading the opening lines of the preamble to the Constitution.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Trump had done nothing impeachable and accused Democrats of trying to remove him “because they are scared they cannot defeat him at the ballot box.”

No. 3 House GOP leader Steve Scalise, R-La., accused Democrats of imposing “Soviet-style rules,” speaking in front of a bright red poster depicting St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow.

Independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who left the Republican Party earlier this year after saying he was open to considering whether Trump should be impeached, also backed the measure.

The investigation is focused on Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political opponents by withholding military aid and an Oval Office meeting craved by the country’s new president.

Democrats said the procedures — which give them the ability to curb the president’s lawyers from calling witnesses — are similar to rules used during the impeachment proceedings of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Republicans complained they were skewed against Trump.

It is likely to take weeks or more before the House decides whether to vote on actually impeaching Trump. If the House does vote for impeachment, the Senate would hold a trial to decide whether to remove the president from office.

Both parties’ leaders were rounding up votes as Thursday’s roll call approached, with each side eager to come as close to unanimity as possible.

Republicans said a solid GOP “no” vote would signal to the Senate that the Democratic push is a partisan crusade against a president they have never liked.

Democrats were also hoping to demonstrate solidarity from their most liberal elements to their most moderate members. They argued that GOP cohesion against the measure would show that Republicans are blindly defending Trump, whatever facts emerge.

Republicans said they’d use the vote to target freshman Democrats and those from districts Trump carried in 2016. They said they would contrast those Democrats’ support for the rules with campaign promises to focus on issues voters want to address, not on impeaching Trump.

The House GOP’s campaign arm sent emails to reporters all but taunting some of those Democrats including freshman Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H. “Pappas wants to be a one-termer,” one said.

GOP leaders called the rules “Speaker Pelosi’s sham process designed to discredit the Democratic process” in their daily impeachment email to lawmakers.

Pelosi decided to have the vote following weeks of GOP claims that the inquiry was invalid because the chamber had not voted to formally commence the work.

The rules lay out how the House Intelligence Committee — now leading the investigation by deposing diplomats and other officials behind closed doors — would transition to public hearings.

That panel would issue a report and release transcripts of the closed-door interviews it has been conducting.

The Judiciary Committee would then decide whether to recommend that the House impeach Trump.

According to the rules for hearings, Republicans could only issue subpoenas for witnesses to appear if the entire panel approved them — in effect giving Democrats veto power.

Attorneys for Trump could participate in the Judiciary Committee proceedings. But in a bid for leverage, panel Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would be allowed to deny “specific requests” by Trump representatives if the White House continued refusing to provide documents or witnesses sought by Democratic investigators.

The rules also direct House committees “to continue their ongoing investigations” of Trump.

Top Democrats think that language will shield their members from weeks of Republican complaints that the inquiry has been invalid because the House had not formally voted to begin that work.

Democrats have said there’s no constitutional provision or House rule requiring such a vote.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to say poster showed St. Basil’s, not Kremlin.

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG

NEW YORK (AP) — In the early days of Kristen David’s law firm, she told staffers they could all take off the day after Thanksgiving. But before the holiday, they learned an upcoming trial would start Monday, right after the long weekend.

“I had given them the weekend off. They had made travel plans and weren’t even going to be in town,” said David, who ended up working solo through the weekend to be sure the firm was ready for the trial.

Holiday staffing can be one of a small business owner’s biggest stressors — even companies that aren’t retailers or restaurants can have a year-end busy season, just when employees all want to take time off. Accounting and other financial advisory firms, for example, must get work done for clients by Dec. 31, and the nature of their work doesn’t allow them to use temporary help. Companies can also have an unexpected crisis or project that can force an owner to change holiday plans, a hard lesson that can affect a company’s vacation policy going forward. And owners can discover they’re vulnerable to staffing issues at other companies.

Now, “we let the team know that while we’d love to give everyone the Friday off after Thanksgiving, or Monday after a holiday as an extra bonus, we’ll have to wait until just before the holiday to determine the final schedule,” she says.

The experience also taught David, who now works as a business coach based in Seattle, that everyone couldn’t be out of the office at the same time. The firm changed its vacation policy and encouraged staffers to request just a few days off so everyone could have a chance to be off during the holidays.

While some holiday staffing issues can’t be predicted, owners can lessen the likelihood of problems by setting expectations well in advance, says Kate Zabriskie, president of Business Training Works, a company that offers management training.

“People don’t like being told one thing and then finding out it’s not so,” Zabriskie says.

The clients at Dawson Whitfield’s graphic design company include entrepreneurs who need logos created ASAP, even if the holidays are in full swing.

“Right when everyone in the office wants to ramp down for vacation, our customers are ramping up to finally follow that New Year’s resolution of launching a business,” says Whitfield, owner of Toronto-based Looka.

When Whitfield hires a staffer, he tells them that it will be hard to take time off in December. He does let employees take some days, but of course everyone wants the prime days, a common problem at companies of all sizes. His solution is to remind staffers that designing logos is a key part of the company’s mission and, rather than dictating a solution, he asks them to work out a schedule for time off.

Many small businesses that provide specialized or professional services can’t bring in temporary staffers the way retailers, restaurants and delivery services do. Architecture, accounting and law firms, for example, tend to work on an ongoing basis with clients, and freelancers or temporary employees won’t be able to just jump in and take over the work. Moreover, even companies that can use temporary help can struggle to find it because of the shrunken labor pool, a result of low unemployment.

Owners can find out the hard way that they can be hurt by other companies’ staffing problems. Chase Fisher has learned he needs to be concerned not only about having enough people in his eyewear retailing business but also about the number of employees in the companies he deals with.

Fisher, owner of Blenders Eyewear, has realized that several months before Black Friday, he needs to meet with the companies that take the orders and pack and ship his sunglasses and ski goggles. If those companies are understaffed, then deliveries of his merchandise will be delayed and customers will post negative reviews online about his business.

Fisher, who has an internet business and a physical store in San Diego, expects nearly two-thirds of his holiday customers to be first-time shoppers. If an order is shipped late, “that’s something that will break your trust immediately,” he says.

Small businesses that rely on freelancers or independent contractors to get their work done can also struggle with staffing issues — but these are workers an owner has no control over.

Robyn Flint hires building contractors to fix up houses that have been damaged in natural disasters or fires. Her company, Property Wise, is based in Bedford, Virginia. Some of the work is done for owners who need to get back into their homes; Flint also needs rehabilitation work on houses she buys and plans to resell.

But, she says, “during the holidays it is hard to find people to keep the work going.”

Most of the contractors are self-employed and make their own hours, and many decide to take the holidays off. Some leave in the middle of a job. Meanwhile, Flint has frustrated homeowners waiting, or she’s paying interest and taxes on houses that can’t be sold until she can get contractors to renovate them.

“We’re at their mercy or we have to find someone else if we can,” she says.

It’s especially a problem in the months after a hurricane or tornado damage.

“There’s generally a lot of people at one time needing the same resources,” Flint says.

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Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com