[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 7, Chapters 22 - 25]
[Chapter 24. Bills, Resolutions, and Memorials]
[C. Veto Powers]
[Â§ 17. In General]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[Page 4922-4928]
 
                               CHAPTER 24
 
              Bills, Resolutions, Petitions, and Memorials
 
                             C. VETO POWERS
 
Sec. 17. In General


    The term ``veto'' is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. 
Rather, what is provided is a procedure, under article 1, section 7, 
whereby the President participates with the Congress in the enactment 
of laws. His power under article I to disapprove (veto) a bill 
presented to him was described by Alexander Hamilton as a ``qualified 
negative'' designed to provide a defense for the executive against the 
Congress and ``to increase the chances in favour of the community 
against the passing of bad laws, through haste, inadvertence, or 
design.'' (1)
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 1. Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 73.
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     Article I, section 7, paragraph 2 of the Constitution provides:

[[Page 4923]]

        Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives 
    and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the 
    President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but 
    if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in 
    which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at 
    large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such 
    Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the 
    Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other 
    House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved 
    by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such 
    Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and 
    Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill 
    shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.
        If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten 
    Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, 
    the Same shall be a Law, in like manner as if he had signed it, 
    unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in 
    which Case it shall not be a Law.

     Thus the President has a 10-day period (Sundays excepted), 
beginning at midnight on the day of presentation to him,(2) 
in which to approve or disapprove a bill. He can sign the bill into law 
or he can return it to the House of its origination with a message 
detailing why he chooses not to sign. If he fails to act during that 
period, the bill will become law automatically, without his signature. 
However, if before the end of that 10-day period the Congress adjourns 
sine die and thereby prevents the return of the bill, the bill does not 
become law if the President has taken no action (i.e., approval or 
disapproval) regarding it. This latter procedure is commonly referred 
to as a ``pocket veto.'' The authority to ``pocket veto'' during 
intrasession and intersession adjournments has been the subject of 
litigation, which is discussed in Sec. 18, infra.
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 2. See Sec. 17.1, infra.
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                          Collateral Reference
 For a chronological list of Presidential vetoes and congressional 
    action thereon, from 1789 to 1968, see Senate Library, Presidential 
    Vetoes, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 
    1969.                          -------------------

Ten-day Period

Sec. 17.1 The 10-day period given the President under the Constitution 
    in which to approve or reject a bill may be considered as beginning 
    at midnight of the day on which the bill is presented to him.

    On Sept. 14, 1959,(3) Mr. Kenneth B. Keating, of New 
York,
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 3. 105 Cong. Rec. 19553, 86th Cong. 1st Sess.
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[[Page 4924]]

propounded a parliamentary inquiry in the Senate concerning the veto 
message of the President delivered to the House on a private bill (H.R. 
2717). He inquired whether more than 10 days had expired since the bill 
was presented to the President under the provisions of article I, 
section 7, of the Constitution.(4)
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 4. H.R. 2717 was presented at the White House on Aug. 31, 1959. 
        However, it was not presented to the President until after his 
        return from Europe on Sept. 7. The enrolled bill, when returned 
        to the House with the veto message, carried a stamped notation 
        added at the White House, reading as follows: ``Aug. 31, 1959. 
        Held for presentation to the President upon his return to the 
        United States.'' The issue of whether the veto message was 
        beyond the 10-day period is discussed in Sec. Sec. 17.3 and 
        17.4, infra.
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     The Presiding Officer (5) responded that the 10-day 
limitation begins to run as of midnight on the day on which a bill is 
presented to the President for his approval.
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 5. Howard W. Cannon (Nev.).
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     Parliamentarian's Note: The day on which the bill is presented to 
the President is not counted in the computation.

Sec. 17.2 A private bill sent to the White House on Aug. 31, 1959, but 
    not presented to the President until after his return from Europe 
    on Sept. 7, was returned without the President's approval on Sept. 
    14, 1959.

    On Sept. 14, 1959,(6) the Speaker (7) laid 
before the House the veto message of the President received on that day 
of a private bill (H.R. 2717). The bill had been sent to the President 
on Aug. 31.
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 6. 105 Cong. Rec. 19697, 86th Cong. 1st Sess.
 7. Sam Rayburn (Tex.).
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    After the veto message had been read the Speaker declared:

        The objections of the President will be spread at large upon 
    the Journal, and, without objection, the bill and message will be 
    referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be 
    printed.
        There was no objection.

Sec. 17.3 Whether a bill has been acted on by the President within the 
    10 days allowed him by the Constitution is a legal question and not 
    open to determination by the Presiding Officer of the Senate.

    On Sept. 14, 1959,(8) Senator Kenneth B. Keating, of New 
York, raised several parliamentary inquiries in the Senate regarding 
the purported veto by President
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 8. 105 Cong. Rec. 19553, 19554, 86th Cong. 1st Sess.
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[[Page 4925]]

Eisenhower of a private bill (H.R. 2717):

        Mr. President, I rise to propound a parliamentary inquiry: On 
    March 17, 1959, the House of Representatives passed, and on August 
    27, 1959, the Senate passed, House bill 2717, for the relief of 
    Eber Bros. Wine & Liquor Corp.
        The bill was sent to the White House on August 31, 1959. 
    However, I am informed that it was not brought to the President's 
    personal attention, by his staff, until approximately 5 days ago. 
    The President has today disapproved the bill and returned it here. 
    . . .
        My question is whether the status of a bill passed by the 
    Congress is affected in any way by the President's purported veto 
    of the bill this morning, more than 10 days after it was delivered 
    at the White House.
        The Presiding Officer: (9) The Chair states that if 
    the President has vetoed the bill, it being a House bill, it will 
    go back to the House for further action. If the House overrides the 
    veto, it will be submitted to the Senate, and there will be an 
    opportunity to act upon it. . . .
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 9. Howard W. Cannon (Nev.).
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        Mr. Keating: My inquiry, which the Chair may be unwilling or 
    should refrain from responding to, is this: Is any action by the 
    Congress necessary if the President retains a bill for more than 10 
    days before he acts on it?
        The Presiding Officer: According to the Constitution, the bill 
    should become a law if it has not been acted upon within 10 days 
    after it has been presented to the President. The matter of whether 
    10 days have elapsed is a question for legal determination, and not 
    for the Chair to determine.

Sec. 17.4 The Court of Claims has ruled that where the President was on 
    a trip abroad and, with congressional acquiescence, had requested 
    that bills from Congress were to be received at the White House for 
    presentation to him only upon his return to the United States, the 
    President's veto of a bill more than 10 days after delivery to the 
    White House but less than 10 days from his return to the country 
    was timely.

     On Oct. 16, 1964, the U.S. Court of Claims took up the question of 
the effectiveness of a Presidential veto in Eber Brothers Wine & Liquor 
Corporation v U.S.(10) On Aug. 31, 1959, the Congress had 
delivered at the White House a private bill (H.R. 2717) for the relief 
of the Eber Brothers Wine and Liquor Corporation. The President was not 
in the country at the time. He returned on Sept. 7, and on Sept. 14, he 
vetoed the bill and sent his veto message to the House of 
Representatives. The House did not reconsider the bill.
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10. 337 F2d 624 (Ct. Cl.); cert. denied, 380 U.S. 950 (1964).
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    The Eber Bros. Corp. filed suit in the Court of Claims asking for

[[Page 4926]]

the relief provided in H.R. 2717, claiming that the bill had become law 
since the President had taken no action regarding it within 10 days of 
its presentation to him on Aug. 31.
    The Court denied the plaintiff's contention. It ruled that the 
``presentation'' to the President contemplated in article I, section 7 
of the Constitution took place in this case on Sept. 7, when the 
President had properly vetoed the bill within 10 days after that date.
    To reach this conclusion the Court reasoned that article I section 
7 contemplates two important duties to be performed by the President 
and the Congress respectively: the President must consider a bill, and 
the Congress must reconsider it in the event it is vetoed by the 
President. The President has 10 days (Sundays excepted) to consider the 
bill after it is ``presented'' to him, and the Congress has an 
indefinite time to reconsider a veto provided it has not by its 
adjournment prevented its return.

    ``It is also important,'' the Court said, ``that under the careful 
words of the Constitution, the President's limited time for considering 
a bill does not begin until the measure is presented to him. That 
period does not mechanically commence at the end of the passage of the 
bill through the Congress. A further step is necessary, and the 
initiation of that step--presentation to the President--lies with the 
Congress.'' (11)
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11. Id. at p. 629.
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    The Court went on to say that the manner of presentation is a 
matter two sides are free to agree on between themselves. ``[T]hough 
personal presentation to the President is not mandatory, either the 
Congress or the President can insist on such delivery [,]'' in order to 
protect the duties of consideration and reconsideration assigned them 
by the Constitution. However, and most importantly, ``. . . If personal 
delivery is not demanded by either side, presentation can be made in 
any agreed manner or in a form established by one party in which the 
other acquiesces [.]'' (12)
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12. Id.
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    The Court found that in this case, and in light of the practice 
during previous administrations regarding Presidential trips abroad, 
the Congress had acquiesced in President Eisenhower's wish that bills 
delivered to the White House not be ``presented'' to him until his 
return from abroad.(13)
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13. Id. at pp. 630-34.
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Sec. 17.5 The 10 days provided in the Constitution during

[[Page 4927]]

    which the President may hold a bill without action runs from the 
    day it is presented to him and not from the day noted in the Record 
    as delivered at the White House.

    On Dec. 1, 1943,(14) the Speaker (15) laid 
before the House the veto message of the President on the bill (H.R. 
1155) for the relief of two military officers, where it appeared that, 
although the bill had been at the White House for more than 10 days, 
the President acted on the bill within 10 days of its presentation to 
him. In the veto message the President stated that the bill was 
presented to him on Nov. 25, 1943. The Congressional Record of Nov. 12, 
1943, records that this bill was presented to the President for his 
approval on that date. The enrolled copy of the bill returned by the 
President along with his veto message bore a White House stamp dated 
Nov. 12, 1943, along with the handwritten notation ``for forwarding.''
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14. 89 Cong. Rec. 10190, 78th Cong. 1st Sess.
15. Sam Rayburn (Tex.).
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     The House did not vote on the returned bill but, by unanimous 
consent, referred the bill and message to the Committee on Claims.

Bill Signed in Prior Capacity as Presiding Officer of Senate

Sec. 17.6 The President has vetoed a bill he had previously signed as 
    Presiding Officer of the Senate.

    On Apr. 19, 1945,(16) the Speaker (17) laid 
before the House the veto message of President Harry Truman relating to 
a private bill (H.R. 2055).
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16. 91 Cong. Rec. 3577, 79th Cong. 1st Sess.
17. Sam Rayburn (Tex.).
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    Parliamentarian's Note: After Vice President Truman had signed the 
enrolled bill as President of the Senate, and after the enrolled bill 
had been sent to the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. 
The Vice President became President and the bill was presented to him 
for approval as President.

 Approval of Bill Similar to One Previously Vetoed

Sec. 17.7 The President vetoed a Senate joint resolution but 
    subsequently signed a similar House joint resolution modified by an 
    amendment.

    On May 22, 1935,(18) Mr. William M. Citron, of 
Connecticut, ob
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18. 79 Cong. Rec. 8026, 74th Cong. 1st Sess.
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[[Page 4928]]

tained unanimous consent to take from the table House Joint Resolution 
107, authorizing the President of the United States to proclaim Oct. 
11, of each year, General Pulaski's Memorial Day. The resolution was 
agreed to with a committee amendment limiting the memorial day to Oct. 
11, 1935, rather than Oct. 11, of each year. The Senate on May 28 
passed the House joint resolution and the President signed it on June 
6.

    Parliamentarian's Note: This resolution was similar to Senate joint 
resolution (S.J. Res. 21) which had previously passed both Houses and 
which provided for an annual commemorative day, each October, without 
limitation. The Senate joint resolution was vetoed by the President on 
Apr. 11, 1935.