Lecture 12-2

President and Congress – President’s Legislative Powers

• Approve/Veto

• Propose

• Special Session – not important

• Adjourn Congress IF they cannot agree when to. This has never happened – not important

• State of the Union address

President and Congress – Domestic Policy

• A president must know the legislative environment

• A president needs a good sense of timing

• Presidents must establish priorities and know where to concentrate their energies

• President must have a high-quality legislative liaison office

President and Congress – Domestic Policy

• Presidents must consult with party leaders, in the opposition as well as in their own party, when they are developing a major legislative initiative

• Wise president’s remembers Jefferson's advice: great innovations should not and cannot be forced upon slender majorities

Presidential Veto

• A powerful weapon, the veto has been overridden only about 4 percent of the time

• Unlike many state governors, the president does NOT have the line item veto

• Riders are sometime used by Congress to avoid a veto, by attaching something otherwise unacceptable to a bill the president favors

Executive Privilege

• Used since Washington’s day to protect a president’s personal communication with advisors

• Nixon tried to enlarge the scope of the EP. Supreme Court – Not so fast

• US v Nixon – No unqualified right of EP. Does not extend to criminal investigations

Impoundments

• Ability of the president to NOT spend appropriated money

• Regulated by the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (another attempt by Congress to regain “lost power”)

• Constitutionality of impoundments not tested by the courts