What Does Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution Explain?

Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution sets the rules for how a federal bill becomes law. It has three clauses: the first requires that bills to raise revenue start in the House of Representatives, the second lays out how bills are presented to the President and how vetoes and overrides work, and the third extends that same process to most other joint actions of Congress. Together, these clauses create the back-and-forth between Congress and the President that governs every piece of federal legislation.¹

Where Revenue Bills Must Start

The first clause, known as the Origination Clause, requires that all bills for raising revenue begin in the House of Representatives.¹ The framers gave the House this role because its members stand for election every two years, making them the federal officials most directly accountable to taxpayers.²

The Senate is not shut out. Once the House passes a revenue bill, the Senate may propose amendments as it would with any other legislation. The Supreme Court has read that amendment power broadly, allowing the Senate to strike the House’s original tax provision entirely and substitute a different one, so long as the amendment relates to the bill’s subject.² The House controls where a tax bill begins; the Senate can reshape it before it passes.

What Counts as a Revenue Bill

Not every bill involving money qualifies. The Origination Clause applies only to bills that levy taxes to fund the general operations of the federal government. A bill that creates a specific program and charges fees or assessments to pay for that program is not a revenue bill, even if the word “tax” appears in it.²

How a Bill Reaches the President

The second clause, the Presentment Clause, sets out what has to happen before a bill can carry the force of law. Both the House and the Senate must pass the bill in identical form. When the chambers pass different versions, a conference committee typically reconciles them and sends a single text back to each chamber for a final vote.³

Once both chambers agree, the bill is enrolled and delivered to the President.³ If the President signs it, it becomes law.⁴ If the President objects, the Constitution provides two ways to reject it.

Vetoes and Congressional Overrides

The standard rejection is a return veto. The President sends the bill back to the chamber where it originated, along with a written message stating the objections. That chamber records the objections in its journal and reconsiders the bill.⁴

Congress can override the veto, but only with a supermajority. The originating chamber must first pass the bill again by a two-thirds vote. If it does, the bill moves to the other chamber, which must also approve it by two-thirds. Both chambers must record each member’s vote, by name, in their journals.¹ The two-thirds figure refers to members present and voting, provided a quorum exists, not two-thirds of the full membership.⁵

Successful overrides are uncommon. Of 2,599 presidential vetoes in American history, Congress has overridden 112.⁶

The Ten-Day Rule and Pocket Vetoes

The President has ten days, not counting Sundays, to act on a bill after receiving it. What happens if the President does nothing during that window depends on whether Congress is still in session.⁷

If Congress is in session, the bill becomes law without the President’s signature.⁷
If Congress has adjourned, the bill dies. This is called a pocket veto, and because Congress is not sitting to receive the bill back, there is no override available.⁷

A pocket-vetoed bill cannot be revived. Congress would have to reintroduce and pass it from scratch in a later session.

The Constitution does not define what kind of adjournment triggers a pocket veto. The Supreme Court has held that a brief recess of one chamber lasting three days or fewer, while the overall session continues, does not qualify.⁸ A final adjournment at the end of a two-year Congress clearly does.

No Line-Item Veto

The Presentment Clause forces the President to accept or reject a bill as a whole. There is no constitutional power to approve some provisions and cancel others. Congress tried to create one in the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, which let the President strike individual spending items or tax benefits from larger bills. The Supreme Court struck the law down in Clinton v. City of New York (1998), holding that it violated the Presentment Clause by letting the executive amend legislation on its own.⁹ The President’s choices remain sign in full or veto in full.¹⁰

Orders, Resolutions, and Votes

The third clause closes a potential loophole. Without it, Congress could evade the veto simply by labeling a measure something other than a bill. The Constitution requires that any order, resolution, or vote needing the concurrence of both the House and the Senate go through the same presentment process, including the President’s chance to approve or reject it.¹¹

Joint resolutions, which carry the same legal weight as bills, are the main example. If the President vetoes one, the same two-thirds override procedure applies.¹ Votes on adjournment are explicitly exempt, and actions that do not carry the force of law, such as concurrent resolutions expressing the sense of Congress, fall outside the clause as well.¹¹

Constitutional Amendments Are Different

Proposed amendments to the Constitution do not go to the President for signature. The Supreme Court settled this in Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), reasoning that the veto power reaches ordinary legislation, not the separate process for amending the Constitution itself. That rule has stood ever since.

1
Library of Congress. Article I Section 7 | Constitution Annotated
2
LII / Legal Information Institute. Origination Clause and Revenue Bills
3
Ben’s Guide To the U.S. Government. How Laws Are Made
4
LII / Legal Information Institute. Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 – Presidential Approval or Veto of Bills
5
National Archives. The Presidential Veto and Congressional Veto Override Process
6
United States Senate. Vetoes, 1789 to Present
7
LII / Legal Information Institute. Overview of Presidential Approval or Veto of Bills
8
Cornell Law School – Legal Information Institute. Wright v. United States
9
LII / Legal Information Institute. Clinton v. City of New York (1998)
10
Library of Congress. Line Item Veto
11
Cornell Law School. Article I, Section 7, Clause 3 Presentation of Senate or House Resolutions