After decades of debate over whether a method other than impeachment for the removal of unfit federal judges was warranted or constitutionally permissible, Congress passed the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, which provided a less drastic method for handling allegations of judicial misconduct and disability. Under the act, a complaint of judicial misconduct would be subject to several levels of review – including review by the chief judge of the circuit, the circuit judicial council, and the Judicial Conference of the United States – before it could be referred to the U.S. House of Representatives for a possible impeachment proceeding. The act also provided several alternative remedies, short of impeachment, for judicial misconduct.