How the Presidential Veto Works (And Why It Rarely Gets Overridden)

When Congress passes a bill, it does not automatically become law. The president has to sign it. And if the president does not want to sign it, there are several ways to stop it.

The Basic Veto

When a bill reaches the president's desk, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president three options:

1. Sign the bill. It becomes law.
2. Veto the bill. Send it back to Congress with a written explanation of why.
3. Do nothing. What happens next depends on whether Congress is still in session.

A regular veto is straightforward. The president writes a veto message explaining the objections, and sends the bill back to whichever chamber it came from. That message becomes part of the public record.

What Happens After a Veto

Congress can try to override a veto, but it is extremely difficult. Both the House and Senate have to vote again, and this time each chamber needs a two-thirds supermajority to pass the bill over the president's objection.

Two-thirds is a high bar. In a closely divided Congress, getting that many votes from both parties is rare. In all of American history, out of roughly 1,500 regular vetoes, only about 112 have been successfully overridden. That is about a 7% success rate.

The last successful override was in 2016, when Congress overrode President Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allowed families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. The Senate voted 97-1 and the House voted 348-77 to override. Even Obama acknowledged the bill had overwhelming support. Overrides like that are the exception, not the rule.

The 10-Day Clock

The president does not have unlimited time to decide. Once Congress formally delivers a bill to the White House, the president has 10 days (Sundays not counted) to act.

If the president does nothing and Congress is still in session, the bill becomes law without a signature after 10 days. This has happened when a president disagreed with a bill but did not want to formally veto it, or knew an override was certain.

But if Congress adjourns before the 10 days are up, the bill dies. That leads to a different kind of veto.

The Pocket Veto

A pocket veto happens when the president simply ignores a bill and Congress adjourns before the 10-day window closes. The bill never becomes law, and unlike a regular veto, there is no veto message and no chance for Congress to override it.

The bill just disappears. If Congress wants to try again, it has to start over from scratch in the next session.

Pocket vetoes used to be common. Franklin Roosevelt used 263 of them. In recent decades they have become rare. Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden all used zero pocket vetoes during their terms.

Can the President Veto Part of a Bill?

No. The president has to accept or reject a bill in its entirety. There is no line-item veto at the federal level.

Congress actually tried to change this. In 1996, they passed the Line Item Veto Act, which gave the president power to cancel individual spending items from bills. President Clinton used it 82 times in 1997.

The Supreme Court struck it down the next year in Clinton v. City of New York (1998). The Court ruled 6-3 that the Constitution requires the president to accept or reject a bill as a whole. Letting the president cancel individual items would effectively give the executive branch the power to rewrite legislation, which belongs to Congress.

That is why you sometimes see massive bills packed with unrelated provisions. Lawmakers know the president cannot selectively remove parts, so they bundle popular and unpopular items together. It is a feature of the system, even if it frustrates people on all sides.

Forty-four state governors do have line-item veto power. It just does not exist at the federal level.

How Often Do Presidents Use the Veto?

Less than you might think. Here are the recent numbers:

For comparison, Franklin Roosevelt holds the all-time record with 635 total vetoes across his four terms.

The veto count is often tied to divided government. Presidents veto more bills when the opposing party controls Congress. When the president's party holds both chambers, most bills that reach the president's desk already have the administration's support.

Why the Veto Matters

The veto is one of the most powerful tools in the federal legislative process, and most of its power comes from the threat. Presidents often do not need to actually veto a bill because the possibility of a veto shapes what Congress sends to the White House in the first place.

If congressional leaders know a bill will be vetoed and they do not have the votes to override, they will either change the bill to address the president's concerns or not bother bringing it to a vote. This is sometimes called the "veto bargaining" dynamic, and it is one of the main ways the president influences legislation without ever picking up a pen.

So when you see a bill pass Congress, part of the reason it looks the way it does is that it was already shaped by what the president is willing to sign.