Powers of The President of The United States - Powers Related To Legislation

Powers Related To Legislation

The President has several options when a bill arrives on his desk from Congress:

If he agrees with the bill, then it is signed into law within ten days of receipt. If the president opposes the bill, he can veto it and return the legislation to Congress with a veto message offering suggested changes. Presidents must approve all of a bill or none of it; they do not have the ability to veto only selected parts. If the Congress is still in session for ten business days after the president receives the bill, the legislation will become a law without the president's signature. But, if Congress adjourns within the ten business days of giving the bill to the President, the bill dies. If the president does this to a bill, Congress can do nothing to override the president. This is called a pocket veto. In 1996, Congress gave President Bill Clinton a line-item veto over parts of a bill that require spending federal funds. The Supreme Court ruled that Clinton's use of the veto against a pork barrel appropriation for New York City was unconstitutional. The Court ruled in Clinton v. New York City that only a constitutional amendment could give the president the line item veto power. The President can also issue a signing statements with a bill that he has signed. In a signing statement, the President may express his opinion on the constitutionality of some provisions of a bill (such as those that intrude on executive power) and declare that those provisions will not be enforced. The Supreme Court has not addressed the use of signing statements by the President. Congress can override vetoes with a two-thirds vote of both chambers, but this process is difficult and relatively rare. The threat of a presidential veto is usually sufficient to force Congress to modify a bill so that the President is willing to sign it.

Much of the legislation dealt with by Congress is drafted at the initiative of the executive branch. In annual and special messages to Congress, the president may propose legislation he believes is necessary. The most important of these is the annual State of the Union address. Before a joint session of Congress, the president outlines the status of the country and his legislative proposals for the upcoming year. If Congress should adjourn without acting on those proposals, the president has the power to call it into special session. But beyond this official role, the president, as head of a political party and as principal executive officer of the United States government, is primarily in a position to influence public opinion and thereby to influence the course of legislation in Congress.

For more details on this topic, see Bully pulpit.

To improve their working relationships with Congress, presidents in recent years have set up an Office of Legislative Affairs. Presidential aides keep abreast of all important legislative activities.