What happens if the President does not sign a bill?

If the President does not sign a bill within ten days (excluding Sundays) and Congress is still in session, the bill automatically becomes law without the President's signature. This rule is set by Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. The ten-day clock starts when the bill is presented to the President, not when it is passed by Congress.

The Constitution gives the President several options when a bill arrives at the White House. The President can sign the bill, making it law immediately. The President can veto the bill, returning it to the chamber where it originated with written objections. The President can take no action. If the President takes no action and Congress is in session, the bill becomes law after ten days, the same as if the President had signed it.

The framers added this provision to prevent the President from blocking legislation simply by ignoring it. If the President had absolute power to kill bills by inaction, the President could undermine the legislative power of Congress without even being held accountable for vetoing the legislation publicly. Requiring the President to either sign, veto, or accept the bill by inaction creates a clear public record of presidential action.

Presidents sometimes use the ten-day option strategically. Allowing a bill to become law without a signature is a way to express disagreement with parts of the bill while still allowing it to take effect. Without a signature, the President is not personally endorsing the bill but is not blocking it either. President George W. Bush, for example, allowed several bills to become law without his signature when he disagreed with parts of them but did not want to veto them outright.

The exception is a pocket veto, which applies when Congress adjourns within the ten-day period. Pocket vetoes are discussed in question 186. The presentment process and ten-day rule have been the subject of some Supreme Court rulings. The Court held in INS v. Chadha (1983) that legislative vetoes (provisions allowing Congress to overturn executive actions without going through the bicameralism and presentment process) are unconstitutional, reinforcing that all major lawmaking must follow the prescribed process of bicameral passage plus presidential action.