pocket veto
1
8.8
- noun
- /ˈpɑkɪt ˈviːtoʊ/
- Formal
:
veto de bolsillo
- President Obama recently used a pocket veto on a bill that would allow foreclosure and other documents to be accepted among multiple states and therefore make it difficult for homeowners to challenge foreclosure documents prepared in other states.
Examples
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Due to a pocket veto, the proposed legislation could not be revisited until the next congressional session.
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In this instance, one person is constitutionally authorized to kill legislation, but that action is, with the exception of the pocket veto, subject to the possibility of being overridden by constitutionally specified extraordinary majorities in each house of Congress.
Academic text (1997) -
A pocket veto is when the President doesn't sign a bill for ten days, but Congress can't overrule it.
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A definition for pocket veto: "Should the President decline to sign or veto a bill that has come before him, it will be automatically vetoed after 10 days should Congress be adjourned or out of session."
Blog text (33) -
The President's choice to not sign the bill resulted in a pocket veto, preventing any further action by Congress.
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When the session ended without a signature from the governor, the bill faced a pocket veto that halted its progress.
Synonyms
156
4.0
To refuse to accept a decision, proposal, or law
Surface Forms
Morphology
The element 'veto' clearly signals rejection, and 'pocket' evokes putting something aside or keeping it hidden, so a learner could plausibly infer this is a way of vetoing by setting a bill aside rather than by an explicit rejection. However, the specific procedural meaning — retaining a bill unsigned until the legislative session ends so it cannot be enacted — is a specialized, legalistic detail not directly predictable from the constituent words, making the phrase only partially transparent.
Etymology
The term pocket veto comes from the image of a leader literally putting a bill into their pocket and leaving it 'not signed'. By holding the bill until the lawmakers finish their meeting, the leader's veto quietly stops the bill from becoming law.