Legal Definitions - legislative veto

A legislative veto was a legal mechanism that allowed the U.S. Congress to overturn or block actions taken by executive branch agencies without requiring the President's signature. Typically, when Congress passed a law delegating authority to an agency to create specific rules or make decisions (for instance, setting environmental standards or regulating financial markets), it would sometimes include a provision for a legislative veto. This provision meant that if a majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a resolution disapproving of an agency's action, that action would be nullified, even if the President did not sign the resolution.

The Supreme Court declared legislative vetoes unconstitutional in 1983, ruling that they violated the principle of separation of powers and the requirement that all legislation be presented to the President for approval or veto.

Here are some hypothetical examples illustrating how a legislative veto would have functioned:

• Scenario: Imagine that in the 1970s, Congress passed a law empowering the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set strict limits on industrial air pollution. Within that law, Congress included a legislative veto provision. When the EPA later issued a new regulation requiring factories to install very expensive, cutting-edge pollution control technology, a majority of members in both the House and Senate believed the regulation was overly burdensome on businesses.

  Explanation: Under the legislative veto, Congress could have passed a resolution to nullify the EPA's new pollution control regulation. This resolution would not have needed the President's approval to take effect, effectively allowing Congress to directly override the agency's decision.

• Scenario: Suppose Congress established a new federal agency in the early 1980s to oversee consumer product safety, granting it broad authority to recall dangerous items. The enabling legislation included a legislative veto clause. If this agency then issued a rule banning a popular type of children's toy, and a majority of Congress felt the ban was an overreach or based on insufficient evidence, they could have acted.

  Explanation: With a legislative veto, Congress could have passed a resolution to block the agency's ban on the children's toy. This would have allowed Congress to directly control the agency's regulatory power without needing the President to sign off on their decision to overturn the rule.

• Scenario: Prior to 1983, Congress might have delegated authority to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish new safety protocols for commercial airlines. If the FAA then proposed a new rule requiring all airlines to completely redesign their cockpit layouts, and a majority of Congress believed this rule was impractical, excessively costly, and potentially disruptive to air travel without significant safety benefits.

  Explanation: A legislative veto provision would have allowed Congress to pass a resolution to prevent the FAA's cockpit redesign rule from taking effect. This demonstrates how Congress could have used the legislative veto to directly check an executive agency's regulatory power without involving the President in the final decision to nullify the rule.