Editing President of the United States (section)

=== Signing and vetoing bills ===
[[File:Lyndon Johnson signing Civil Rights Act, July 2, 1964.jpg|alt=|thumb|President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] signs the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|1964 Civil Rights Act]] at the [[White House]] on July 2, 1964, as [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and others look on.]]
The president's most significant legislative power derives from the [[Presentment Clause]], which gives the president the power to veto any [[Bill (law)|bill]] passed by [[United States Congress|Congress]]. While Congress can override a presidential veto, it requires a [[Supermajority#Two-thirds vote|two-thirds vote]] of both houses, which is usually very difficult to achieve except for widely supported bipartisan legislation. The framers of the Constitution feared that Congress would seek to increase its power and enable a "tyranny of the majority", so giving the indirectly elected president a veto was viewed as an important check on the legislative power. While George Washington believed the veto should only be used in cases where a bill was unconstitutional, it is now routinely used in cases where presidents have policy disagreements with a bill.  The veto – or threat of a veto – has thus evolved to make the modern presidency a central part of the American legislative process.

Specifically, under the Presentment Clause, once a bill has been presented by Congress, the president has three options:
# Sign the legislation within ten days, excluding Sundays, the bill [[Coming into force|becomes law]].
# [[Veto power in the United States|Veto]] the legislation within the above timeframe and return it to the house of Congress from which it originated, expressing any objections, the bill does not become law, unless both houses of Congress vote to override the veto by a [[Supermajority#Two-thirds vote|two-thirds vote]].
# Take no action on the legislation within the above timeframe—the bill becomes law, as if the president had signed it, unless Congress is adjourned at the time, in which case it does not become law, which is known as a [[pocket veto]].

In 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the [[Line Item Veto Act of 1996|Line Item Veto Act]]. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In ''[[Clinton v. City of New York]]'', {{ussc|524|417|1998}}, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.