House Democrats are assembling an expansive oversight agenda aimed at President Donald Trump, his family, and his administration should the party seize control of the House of Representatives from Republicans in the November midterm elections.

The effort is as ambitious as it is daunting, stretching across multiple House committees. A majority would bring larger budgets and bigger staffs, along with the authority to investigate, issue subpoenas and, Democrats argue, begin to correct what they describe as widespread corruption and abuses of power. Impeachment of the Republican president or members of his Cabinet has not been ruled out.

"There is a cost to the American people of the out-of-control corruption," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, who is in line to become speaker if his party wins control on Capitol Hill.

"If folks have been stealing from the American people, shortchanging the American people or screwing over the American people," Jeffries added, "we are going to hold the crooks accountable."

Congress holds broad authority to scrutinize the executive branch as a coequal branch of government, and a road map for the prospective investigations has already taken shape through the near-daily letters lawmakers have sent to the administration and through amicus briefs filed in court.

Democrats have pressed questions about the money-making ventures of Trump and his family, whose wealth has grown dramatically since he returned to the White House in January 2025. They are probing potential civil rights violations involving Americans killed while protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, as well as detained immigrants deported to faraway countries. They have fought the closing of the Kennedy Center, opened investigations into private funding of the America at 250 celebrations, and tracked the shuttering of federal operations, including the U.S. Agency for International Development.

New questions surface daily. Among the most recent: the Trump family's acknowledgment that a weekend wedding celebration for the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., was partly funded by a Russian oligarch with reportedly close ties to the Kremlin.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is in line to chair the Judiciary Committee, described the issues at stake as "gargantuan."

"We need to zero in quickly on the forms of systemic corruption that have cost the public huge amounts of money," Raskin told The Associated Press, "and where there are legislative cures available."

Jeffries will almost certainly face pressure from the party's left flank to move more swiftly toward articles of impeachment against Trump, who during his first term became the first president to be impeached twice by the House. He was acquitted by the Senate both times. Conviction in an impeachment trial requires the votes of two-thirds of the Senate — a constitutional threshold that no presidential impeachment has ever reached.

A third impeachment of the president may not carry the currency it once did, and Democrats are more likely to direct their impeachment efforts at Cabinet officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth already faces articles of impeachment filed by a Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, over his leadership at the Pentagon and his management of the Iran war.

"We haven't ruled anything out," Jeffries said recently of the tools available to Congress, "and we haven't ruled anything in."

The White House is expected to play hardball if confronted with investigations, and Democrats are bracing for an administration that could ignore subpoenas or refuse to hand over the paperwork lawmakers are demanding. Historically, such fights between Congress and the executive branch over subpoenas and testimony are argued out in federal court, a process that can stretch on for months or longer.

The party is also looking beyond the administration itself, probing corporate and business entities for potential wrongdoing.

Senior Democrats in line to chair committees if power shifts are already charting the investigations they plan to pursue.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has laid out five priorities, including the Trump family's business dealings, the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, and ICE operations.

"We're already doing work," Garcia told the AP.

He also cited the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with broader allegations of corporate corruption.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose jurisdiction covers the State Department said the panel plans to investigate Trump's international dealings, including those surrounding the Iran war. He expects the committee will also examine the administration's Venezuela operations — from the military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific waters to the U.S. partnership with a private company to develop and access the South American country's oil.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department and its National Park Service operations, has begun digging into Trump's "vanity projects," including the demolition of the White House's East Wing to make way for a new ballroom and the president's proposed arch. Huffman and other committee members have also been eyeing the Trump family's role in various minerals deals.

Speaking at the committee's final session before lawmakers recessed to campaign for the midterm elections, Huffman said that if Democrats take charge, he plans to call witnesses, place them under oath, and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

"When people ask what will we do," he said he responds, "My answer is simple. We'll use those tools. We'll act like the Congress."

Control of the House will be decided at the ballot box in November, and the committee gavels — along with the subpoena power that comes with them — will only change hands when the new Congress organizes in January.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.