Question..."veto-proof majority"

I understand more or less how the process works. I am asking if this is a phrase of semantics or if it is something else.

The process as I understand it...bill is passed by majority of the House/Senate...same/similar bill is passed by majority of the Senate/House...gets sent to the President...President signs or Veto's...if vetoed, it is sent back to the house of origin...if a 2/3rds majority pass it again the President's veto is over-turned...otherwise, it is dead.

Here is my question...

I hear all the time the phrase "veto-proof majority" on the radio. If a bill passes both the Senate and the House with a 2/3rds majority and is sent to the President, I assume he could still veto it, knowing it would likely be overturned by simple mathematics, but if it gets sent to him that way, is his signature necessary? Or if it passes by that much is it simply a given at that point?

Sometimes a senator or congressperson who voted for a bill initially will not, for whatever reason, vote to override a presidential veto. Hence, regardless of the initial voting numbers, once vetoed by the president, a bill must be sent back to Congress and re-voted.

someone may have voted for the bill but than got an invitation to the white house and will not vote to over ride the veto.

he can still choose to either sign it or veto it. Either way, he would likely be doing so with an eye towards the evening newscasts, and what type of speech he could give--unless he believes that the veto might not be overridden.

With a Republican President, that's 71 votes in the Senate and 300 in the House.


:dunce:

not too many understand.

A bill must be returned by the President, either signed or vetoed, within 10 days of its passing (not including Sundays) or it's automatically considered signed. So, yeah, no matter what the Congressional vote was, if the President is dumb enough to just hold on to it, it's law.

The exception is when Congress is in recess and in no position to override a veto. If the President just holds on to the bill while Congress is not in session, it is effectively vetoed and can't be overridden. Gotta start all over again.

Why this, you ask? Beats me. Just another quirk that popped up during the Constitutional Convention.