Presentment
From the Congressional Research Service:After presentment the President can then approve or veto the bill.The Constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 7, clause 2) provides that
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States.Enrolled bills are delivered to the White House and stamped to certify the date and time of their arrival. When the President has been overseas for long periods of time, Congress has sometimes agreed to present enrolled measures to him on his return; at other times, bills have been sent to him overseas.
Constitutional Law:
Congress can neither give either itself veto power over the executive nor can it give away it's law making powers to the President.
The Constitution (Art. 1, Sec 7, clause 3) states that for measures to become public law, each House must pass identical bills and present them for his signature. Together, clauses 2 & 3 of Art 1, Sec 7 are known as the Presentment Clauses.
In Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983) – full citation – the Supreme court held that congress could not pass a statute granting either or both Houses a veto over the action of the Executive as all actions, except those regarding the governing of either House, must be passed in identical form by both chambers and approved by the President – even if the original law giving itself the veto power is approved by the President.
In Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998) – full citation – the Supreme Court held that neither could Congress give away its law making powers and allow a the President a line item veto. Again the Presentment Clauses along with Article 1, Section 1:
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.empowers the congress and not the executive with law making powers and that all bills must be identical upon presentment to the President.
By striking specific parts of bills presented to him, he was rewriting legislation that was not passed and approved by both Houses – even though the Congress had given him the power to do so. Congress had passed an unconstitutional law giving the President unconstitutional powers.
The constitutional status of Presidential Signing Statements, where the President interprets how a law is to be enforced, is still muddled and has not yet been directly challenged or addressed. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 S.Ct. 2749 (2006) – full citation – that overturned the legality of Military Commissions, the Court gave no weight to the Presidential signing statement. Signing statements may impose upon the Presentment Clauses and the sole power of the Supreme Court to judicial review rather than the Executive – Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) – full citation