<P> This clause of the U.S. Constitution stemmed from an English parliamentary practice that all money bills must have their first reading in the House of Commons . This practice was intended to ensure that the power of the purse is possessed by the legislative body most responsive to the people, although the English practice was modified in America by allowing the Senate to amend these bills . The clause was part of the Great Compromise between small and large states; the large states were unhappy with the lopsided power of small states in the Senate, and so the clause theoretically offsets the unrepresentative nature of the Senate, and compensates the large states for allowing equal voting rights to Senators from small states . </P> <P> 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; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it . If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law . But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively . If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law . </P> <P> This clause is known as the Presentment Clause . Before a bill becomes law, it must be presented to the President, who has ten days (excluding Sundays) to act upon it . If the President signs the bill, it becomes law . If he disapproves of the bill, he must return it to the House in which it originated together with his objections . This procedure has become known as the veto, although that particular word does not appear in the text of Article One . The bill does not then become law unless both Houses, by two - thirds votes, override the veto . If the President neither signs nor returns the bill within the ten - day limit, the bill becomes law, unless the Congress has adjourned in the meantime, thereby preventing the President from returning the bill to the House in which it originated . In the latter case, the President, by taking no action on the bill towards the end of a session, exercises a "pocket veto", which Congress may not override . In the former case, where the President allows a bill to become law unsigned, there is no common name for the practice, but recent scholarship has termed it a "default enactment ." </P> <P> What exactly constitutes an adjournment for the purposes of the pocket veto has been unclear . In the Pocket Veto Case (1929), the Supreme Court held that "the determinative question in reference to an' adjournment' is not whether it is a final adjournment of Congress or an interim adjournment, such as an adjournment of the first session, but whether it is one that' prevents' the President from returning the bill to the House in which it originated within the time allowed ." Since neither House of Congress was in session, the President could not return the bill to one of them, thereby permitting the use of the pocket veto . In Wright v. United States (1938), however, the Court ruled that adjournments of one House only did not constitute an adjournment of Congress required for a pocket veto . In such cases, the Secretary or Clerk of the House in question was ruled competent to receive the bill . </P>

Who controls the time place and manner of holding elections for members of congress