Drawing upon experiences with legislatively dominated government at the state and national levels in the post-Revolution period, the Founders granted the president the power to veto bills passed by Congress. An analysis of all vetoes cast by modern presidents in office from 1933 to 1981, beginning with Franklin Roosevelt and ending with Jimmy Carter, indicates that Roosevelt used the power most frequently. If, however, one focuses on public bills of national significance and takes into account the number of years each of these presidents served, Gerald Ford was the most significant vetoer of the period. Harry Truman vetoed more major bills than any of the other modern presidents and was also overridden most frequently by Congress on such bills. Most vetoed bills are eventually passed and signed by the president in a different form. The president can also affect legislation by threatening to veto proposed bills: such action may prevent their passage at all or may influence Congress to put them in a form that is acceptable to him.
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References
1.
1. Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885), p. 52.
2.
2. The monarch of Great Britain still theoretically possesses the power to withhold assent from measures passed by Parliament, but no British monarch has actually utilized that power since 1707.
3.
3. C. C. Thach, Jr., The Creation of the Presidency, 1775-1789: A Study in Constitutional History (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1922), chap. 3.
4.
4. Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966), 2:587.
5.
5. Ibid., p. 74.
6.
6. Ibid., 1:139.
7.
7. Ibid., 2:78.
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8. It should be noted, however, that the Supreme Court does possess a type of veto through the power of judicial review, whereby it can declare congressional laws unconstitutional and thus render them null and void.
9.
9. James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897 (Washington, DC: Authority of Congress, 1900), 1:489-490.
10.
10. Ibid., 2:590.
11.
11. Joseph Kallenbach, The American Chief Executive: The Presidency and the Governorship (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 354.
12.
12. Congressional Globe, 27th Cong., 3d sess., 12:144.
13.
13. Edward Mason, The Veto Power: Its Origin, Development, and Function in the Government of the United States, 1789-1889 (Boston: Ginn, 1891), p. 140.
14.
14. Next in terms of frequency was Woodrow Wilson, who was overridden on six occasions.
15.
15. See Fred Greenstein, Larry Berman, and Alvin Felzenberg, Evolution of the Modern Presidency: A Bibliographical Survey (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1977).
16.
16. The legislation authorized trial commissioners of the Claims Court, rather than the Court itself, to consider and report on congressionally referred cases. Guide to Congress, 3d ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1982), p. 359.
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17. For example, in just over five years of the Johnson administration, Congress passed 1088 private bills; in the some five and three-fourths years that President Nixon served, 494 such bills were enacted; and during the four years of the Carter administration, 293 private bills were passed.
18.
18. Franklin Roosevelt vetoed 497 of 3916 private bills, which represents about one in eight of those passed by Congress during his administration. Next in terms of frequency was Harry Truman, whose 169 vetoes of 3453 private bills constitutes about one of every twenty such laws enacted during his presidency.
19.
19. As a check on my subjective judgments on the matter, I compared my list of significant presidential vetoes cast since 1945 against vetoes discussed in Congressional Quarterly, which began publication that year. I found in almost all cases that it covered the same vetoes as were on my list. When it did not, I resolved the matter in favor of inclusion of vetoes that appeared on either of the lists.
20.
20. Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, vol. 2, Years of Trial and Hope (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956), p. 479.
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21. The Supreme Court has held that the two-thirds requirement applies to the override vote itself—providing a quorum is present—not to the membership of the chamber. Missouri-Pacific Railway Co. v. Kansas, 248 U.S. 276 (1919).
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22. In addition to these 42 occasions when Congress actually voted to override presidential vetoes, two other vetoes cast by President Nixon were considered to be overridden because the federal courts ruled that his attempts to use pocket vetoes during short, intra-, and intersession adjournments of Congress were unconstitutional. In so ruling, the courts noted that Congress had made arrangements to have officers receive veto messages while it was in adjournment, and so the Congress had not prevented their return as is contemplated by the Constitution for valid pocket vetoes. Under these circumstances, the two bills became law and are counted officially as being overridden by Congress even though they actually were not.
23.
23. In veto messages, presidents frequently indicate the specific provisions they object to in the legislation involved and may also suggest what they would like to see substituted in their place. They may also express their views in press conferences and other public forums.
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24. Bills were followed five years beyond the one in which the veto occurred, under the assumption that if follow-up efforts on affected legislation were to be made, they would occur during that period of time.
