【美国精神】第34期

Explanation:

  Congress is the part of the U.S. government that is responsible for making laws. However, it cannot do it without the president’s help. Every time that the members of Congress agree on a bill (or an idea for a law), it has to be sent to the president for his or her approval. If the president does not think that the bill is a good idea, he or she can veto¹ the bill so that it doesn’t become a law. If Congress still wants that bill to become a law, it can vote again and if two-thirds (or 67%) of the members agree, they can override² the president’s veto so that the bill becomes a law even though the president doesn’t like it.

  But what happens when the president thinks that some parts of the bill are good but other parts are bad? U.S. bills can be very long, complex documents that have hundreds or thousands of pages and cover (or talk about) many different things. Can the president veto just one or a few things in a bill, but still have the rest of the bill become law?

  That question was being asked a lot in the mid-1990s. Many members of Congress wanted the president to have line-item veto power, or the ability to veto just single line items, or small parts, of a larger bill. In 1996, Congress passed a bill called the Line Item Veto Act of 1996. President Bill Clinton signed it and it became a law. With this law, the president could veto individual parts of appropriation³ bills, or bills about how the government should spend its money. President Clinton used this power a few times.

  However, the members of Congress who didn’t like this law thought that it was unconstitutional, or went against the United States’ most important legal document, the Constitution. The issue was presented to the Supreme⁴ Court, the most powerful court in the US., which decided⁵ that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court believed that the way the Constitution is written, the president must approve or veto whole bills and not just parts of them. So in 1998 the Line Item Veto Act was repealed⁶ (or taken away so that it was not a law anymore). President Clinton was the only president who was ever able to make a line-item veto.

 

问题：

Who vetoes⁷ bills?

Answer:

The President

1 veto   

n.否决权；v.否决；vi.否决，禁止；vt.使用否决权

参考例句：

• The President has the power of veto.总统有否决权。
• Father put a veto upon our staying out late.父亲不许我们在外面逗留太晚。

2 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。

3 appropriation   

n.拨款，批准支出

参考例句：

• Our government made an appropriation for the project.我们的政府为那个工程拨出一笔款项。
• The council could note an annual appropriation for this service.议会可以为这项服务表决给他一笔常年经费。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 repealed   

撤销，废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Labour Party repealed the Act. 工党废除了那项法令。
• The legislature repealed the unpopular Rent Act. 立法机关废除了不得人心的租借法案。

7 vetoes   

n.否决权，否认权( veto的名词复数 )；行使否决权

参考例句：

• A: The President vetoes a bill. 答：总统可以否决国会通过的法案。 来自互联网
• The threat of vetoes from Sweden and like-minded countries has blocked Rome III. 瑞典以及一些观点相近的国家威胁要投票否决改革，致使现行的罗马III搁浅。 来自互联网