You are a governor. A bill that recently passed the state senate is on your desk, and you don't like it. Explain what you can do in each of the following three scenarios.
1. You don't like the whole bill.
2. You don't like certain parts of the bill.
3. You want to speak with the state legislature before signing the bill

Question

You are a governor. A bill that recently passed the state senate is on your desk, and you don't like it. Explain what you can do in each of the following three scenarios.
1. You don't like the whole bill.
2.  You don't like certain parts of the bill.
3. You want to speak with the state legislature before signing the bill

anonymous · Answer

1. Veto it.
2. If you have a line-item veto, veto part of it.  Otherwise, decide whether on balance whether to veto the whole thing and send it back with advice about what bill you would sign.
3. Nothing.  There's no point to this.  The legislature can't change the bill once it's passed -- it can only pass a new one.  Lately executives have used "signing statements" where they assert their right to be somewhat selective about how the enforce or interpret a bill they are signing, but their constitutionality is in question, and it's kind of a sleazy thing to do anyway.