POCKET VETO

POCKET VETO, an indirect veto by which a U.S. president negates legislation without affording Congress an opportunity for repassage by an overriding vote. The Constitution provides that measures presented by Congress to the president within ten days of adjournment and not returned by him before adjournment fail to become law. They are said to have been pocket vetoed. First employed by President James Madison, the pocket veto has been used by every president since Benjamin Harrison. Controversy over the practice has focused on the definition of "adjournment": presidential usage has included brief recesses, whereas congressional critics have argued that the term intends only lengthy adjournments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jones, Charles O. The Presidency in a Separated System. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994.

Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidency: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. New York: Free Press, 1990.

Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M. The Imperial Presidency. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

Taft, William Howard. The Presidency: Its Duties, Its Powers, Its Opportunities, and Its Limitations. New York: Scribner, 1916.

Tugwell, Rexford G., and Thomas E. Cronin, eds. The Presidency Reappraised. New York: Praeger, 1974.

Norman C.Thomas/a. g.

See alsoConnecticut Compromise ; Constitution of the United States ; Delegation of Powers ; Implied Powers ; President, U.S.

POCKET VETO

If Congress adjourns within ten days after passing a bill, the President can prevent the bill's enactment by merely withholding his signature (Article I, section 7, clause 3, of the Constitution). By means of this extension of the veto power, the President can kill legislation without giving any reason and without the possibility of being overridden.

Dennis J. Mahoney
(1986)

pock·et ve·to • n. an indirect veto of a legislative bill by the president or a governor by retaining the bill unsigned until it is too late for it to be dealt with during the legislative session.