Veto of a Reagan Veto

After Congress passes a bill, the President has ten working days to veto it, says the Constitution. He can do so in two ways: 1) he can return the measure to Congress unsigned; or 2) if Congress has adjourned, he can do nothing, exercising the pocket veto. Unlike the normal veto, the pocket veto cannot be overridden by a two-thirds vote. President Reagan tried one last November. The measure in question was a bill declaring that there should be no military aid to El Salvador unless the President could report improvements in that nation's human rights record.

But last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia disallowed Reagan's pocket veto after hearing a suit brought by 33 House Democrats. Their argument: Congress had not adjourned, but was merely off on a break between sessions, and had designated the House clerk and the Senate secretary to receive any presidential missives. Unless the White House successfully appeals to the Supreme Court, the decision makes illegal, technically, the $64 million dispensed to El Salvador in military aid since Nov. 30 of last year.