What is a pocket veto?
A pocket veto lets the president kill a bill without signing it or returning it to Congress. It happens when the 10-day review period expires and Congress has adjourned in a way that prevents the bill’s return. Sundays do not count toward those 10 days.
The bill does not become law, even though both chambers passed it. Congress cannot override a pocket veto. The key is not just that Congress took a break, but that its adjournment prevents the president from returning the bill.
How does the 10-day rule work?
The clock starts after Congress presents the bill to the president, not when the House or Senate votes. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president 10 days, excluding Sundays, to act. Saturdays count.
- If the president signs the bill within that period, it becomes law.
- If the president returns the bill with objections within that period, Congress receives a regular veto.
- If the president takes no action and Congress can receive the returned bill, it becomes law without a signature.
- If the president takes no action and Congress’s adjournment prevents the return, the bill dies through a pocket veto.
The House’s presidential veto overview explains both types of veto and the constitutional rule.
Does every congressional break allow a pocket veto?
No. Adjournment means Congress ends a meeting or session. The constitutional test is whether the adjournment prevents the president from returning the bill to the chamber where it started.
Congress and presidents have disputed which adjournments meet that test, especially shorter breaks and arrangements for an agent to receive veto messages. Do not assume that a weekend or recess automatically kills an unsigned bill. The Congressional Research Service guide to vetoes covers that dispute.
For example, Congress presents a bill shortly before its final adjournment at the end of its two-year term. If that adjournment prevents return and the president leaves the bill unsigned through the deadline, the bill does not become law.
Can Congress override a pocket veto?
No. A regular veto returns the bill to Congress with the president’s objections. Congress can override it with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. That means two-thirds of members present and voting, with a quorum present, not always 290 representatives and 67 senators.
A pocket veto leaves no returned bill for Congress to reconsider. Supporters must introduce the proposal again and pass it through both chambers before presenting it to the president again.
Read how a bill becomes a law to follow the full path from introduction to presidential action.
Follow the votes before the veto
A pocket veto is a presidential action, not a congressional vote. Your representative and senators may have voted on the bill before it reached the president. Those votes still show where they stood, even if the bill never becomes law.
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