Legislative & Budget Making Powers. Legislative Powers President has veto power, as we know Only...

Legislative & Budget Making Powers

Legislative Powers• President has veto power, as we know• Only about 3% (!) of Presidential vetoes have ever

been overridden• Presidential signing statements have also attracted

controversy– George W. Bush and Detainee Treatment Act of 2005

• Executive orders sometimes used for a quasi-legislative purpose– Executive Order 9066 paved the way for Japanese-

American internment

The Legislative Veto

• Joint (both houses) and concurrent (one house) resolutions had been used to veto executive actions– Checks President’s power, asserts Congress’s will,

controls bureaucracy• INS v. Chadha– Immigration & Nationality Act allowed a one-House veto

of executive actions– Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional because of

separation of powers

The Budget Process• Presidents usually get their budgets approved• If the federal budget is not passed and signed the

government shuts down• A continuing resolution is a temporary budget

appropriation that can keep the government operating beyond the fiscal year

• Government shut down in 1995 when President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress couldn’t agree on a budget– Affected public opinion of both, probably damaged

Republicans more• Almost happened again in 2011

The Budget Process• Presidents used to be able to impound, or refuse

to spend, funds appropriated by Congress– Jefferson was first to use this power

• Congress considered this too much power to give the President, and passed the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

• Effectively took away the power of Presidents to impound

• Congress gains back power previously lost to the executive

• Created Congressional Budget Office and gave Congress its own economic advisors

The Budget Process• Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act was

another Congressional attempt to reassert power• Forced the government to make automatic cuts in

military and other federal programs if it ran a deficit– Exempted Social Security and interest on the debt

• Reagan signed the bill• Court found system for determining automatic cuts

unconstitutional in Bowsher v. Synar• Rewritten as Budget Enforcement Act of 1990• Failed to prevent large deficits