Reading Room Document

Appropriations Limitation for Rules Vetoed by Congress

The Presentation Clauses of the Constitution, Article I, § 7, clauses 2 and 3, require amendments of funding statutes, whether achieved through a legislative disapproval mechanism or otherwise, to be presented to the President in order to have the force of law. Congress cannot use its power to appropriate money to circumvent general constitutional limitations on its power. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24571/download.

August 13, 1980