WASHINGTON After spending more than a month in their districts, Democrats returned to Congress on Monday to confront the same big question they faced when they left for the August recess: What should they do about President Donald Trump ?

Support for an impeachment inquiry slowly built during August, with at least 135 Democrats now backing an inquiry. And on Monday, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) took the biggest step yet for impeachment, announcing that his committee would vote Thursday on a resolution to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment.

If the committee approves the resolution as it is expected to do on a party-line vote Democrats would have two options: Move forward with a full House vote on the inquiry or just assert that the committee vote sufficiently moves the House into an impeachment inquiry posture.

Either way, the president could be removed from office only if the House voted to formally impeach Trump and then the Senate voted to convict him. Both outcomes remain unlikely, particularly the part involving the GOP-controlled Senate.

But along with inching closer to impeachment, along with appeasing the Democrats who want to move forward, Nadlers committee vote could also serve the Democrats who would rather this all just go away.

A committee-sanctioned impeachment inquiry could, at least temporarily, placate those who believe congressional Democrats havent done enough to hold Trump accountable while also not subjecting vulnerable House Democrats to a vote on an inquiry. Democrats would simply claim theres no need for the full House to take a vote on an impeachment inquiry because theyve already opened the inquiry.

The nebulous state of impeachment proceedings Nadler has already claimed Democrats have opened an inquiry , though he has also denied that at times has thus far seemed to confuse both House Democrats and voters.

For instance, Judiciary Committee member Ted Lieu (D-Calif) told HuffPost on Monday that the vote merely sets formal parameters for an impeachment inquiry that was already underway.