Pocket Veto For The Secure Borders Act?
Is Bush going to sign the 700-mile border fence bill (the Secure Fence Act), passed with great fanfare by Congress a little over a week ago? According to an AP story from Friday:
President Bush has not yet signed the Secure Fence Act
That signing ceremony he held last Wednesday in Arizona, it turns out, was only for a Homeland Security appropriations bill that included “$1.2 billion for border fencing.” It wasn’t the Secure Fence Act.
We’re approaching pocket veto territory here, aren’t we? Under the Constitution Bush has 10 days to sign the bill into law—a deadline that would seem to be rapidly approaching.
Yesterday I was defending a move which allowed the President to spend appropriated border security money on aspects of a “virtual fence” in addition to the actual physical barrier between the U.S. and Mexico itself, but if the President allows the Secure Fence Act to slip by without signing it into law both he and his party are going to be facing a ticked-off conservative base.
And that’s the surest way to ensure a Democrat majority in Congress come November.
According to the Senate voting record the legislation passed Congress on September 29th, which means that the President has to sign it into law either today or tomorrow in order for it to become law.
He’d better do it too, or we can all say hello to Nancy Pelosi and her tax hikes and impeachment hearings.
