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Comment by WestCoastJustin | Hacker News Reader

My understanding of the US political process is based off what I have learned from TV and the news, but even if it passed the House and Senate, the President can still veto this bill, right? So, since we already know the President supports this cause, and it is his last term, the chances of this becoming law are nil.

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You're basically right, but if it passes both chambers and the president vetos it, they can over-ride that veto with a 2/3 majority of each chamber.

That's unlikely, so you're correct in parsing it as a statement being made, not than something that they actually -want- to have happen.

This is extremely common in the US congress.

What is interesting is that if the bill passes with a 2/3 majority Presidents are unlikely to use the Veto. Nothing stops them from vetoing it but they usually take the passing with that strong of a margin as an indication that the veto would be overridden anyway.

If they really feel strongly about it they'll let the bill sit for the 10 day period where it becomes law without their signature.

Congress can override the president's veto. "[the veto] can be limited, as in the legislative process of the United States, where a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate may override a Presidential veto of legislation."[0]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veto#cite_note-1

Thanks. Didn't know that.

One of the best School House Rocks videos ever is "I'm Just a Bill." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

There are two things missing:

1. Congress can override a Presidential veto with a vote a two-thirds majority in the both chambers.

2. The President can also let a Bill sit for 11 or 12 days (it's really 10, but Sundays don't count.) At that point it becomes law without the President's signature.

Minor correction that is not particularly meaningful here:

2. The President can also let a Bill sit for 11 or 12 days (it's really 10, but Sundays don't count.) At that point it becomes law without the President's signature UNLESS CONGRESS ADJORNS DURING THIS PERIOD, THEN IT DOES NOT BECOME LAW (KNOWN AS A "POCKET VETO").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_veto

At this point a pocket veto only occurs at the end of a full Congressional session since Congress basically stays in pro forma session year round.

Well, it depends on the level of support it gets. If it passes, and Americans show increased support for the effort, it will gain support. A presidential veto could potentially energize this support (granted, it could also kill it). If Americans make it known that this is a big issue for them, there is a chance it could get enough support to override the veto (I'm assuming there are a few Republicans who support PRISM that would vote to override the veto just to knock Obama around a bit).

Ok so the following comment is good.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6098357

Yes he could veto the bill, but this bill contains multiple parts and I believe is the entire DoD budget. So if he did so the US would have no DoD budget. That would be very bad for him.

None of the other comments here are wrong, but they don't address the issue of a Presidential Veto affecting the entire bill not just the amendment.

There's lots of other tricksy stuff too, though, like signing statements. The president could say collecting meta data related to terrorists isn't spying on American's even if that meta data includes American data...basically ordering the executive branch to interpret the law as meta data is fine.

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