Vetoes Highlights

-- A veto is a president's constitutional power to refuse to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevent its enactment into law.

The president has 10 days (excluding Sundays) to sign a bill passed by Congress once a measure reaches his desk. A regular veto occurs when the president returns the legislation to the chamber _ House or Senate _ in which it originated, usually with a message explaining the veto.

This veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House. If this occurs, the bill becomes law over the president's objections. If that margin is not achieved in the first chamber to vote, then a vote in the second is moot, and the veto stands.

A "pocket veto" occurs when Congress adjourns during the 10-day period. The president cannot return the bill to Congress. The president's decision not to sign the legislation is a pocket veto and Congress does not have the opportunity to override.

There have been 2,551 presidential vetoes (both regular and pocket) since George Washington became president in 1789 and now (January 2006). Only 106 have been overridden.

Total vetoes by U.S. presidents over the past eight decades :

_George W. Bush (2001-present), one veto, not overridden.

_Bill Clinton (1993-2001), 37 vetoes, two overridden.

_George H.W. Bush (1989-93), 44 vetoes, one overridden.

_Ronald Reagan (1981-89), 78 vetoes, nine overridden.

_Jimmy Carter (1977-81) 31 vetoes, two overridden.

_Gerald Ford (1974-77) 66 vetoes, 12 overridden.