In the Illinois General Assembly, lawmakers convene in Springfield for two different legislative sessions during the year. The first of the two is Spring Session or Regular Session, taking place from January through the end of May, adjourning with the passage of the state budget. The second session is Veto Session, spanning over two weeks, typically between October and November.
Veto Session allows members of the legislative branch to check the work of the executive branch, which may include overturning gubernatorial vetoes and pushing for legislation that did not make it through before the end of the legislative regular session. The governor in Illinois has four veto powers: a total veto, an amendatory veto, a line-item veto and a reduction veto.
A total veto is the governor’s power to object to the entire bill, and is applicable to all bills. An amendatory veto is when the governor makes changes to a bill. When the governor makes recommendations, they will include a “veto message”, which indicates that if the changes are made, the governor will sign the bill into law. For appropriations bills, a line-item veto is when the governor can choose to remove a line out of a bill, while allowing the rest of the bill to be signed into law. Finally, a reduction veto is when the governor chooses to reduce any amount of an item in an appropriations bill. This follows suit of the line-item bill, where just the portion the governor does not agree with is vetoed, while the rest of the bill is then signed into law.
To override a total veto, the General Assembly must achieve a three-fifths majority vote from each chamber. This is more than what it typically takes to pass a bill from one chamber to the next. In the House, 60 votes are needed to pass a bill, but to override a veto, 71 votes are needed. In the Senate, only 30 votes are needed to pass a bill, but 36 are needed to override a veto. If both chambers achieve the required number of votes to override the governor’s veto, the original bill that was sent to the governor becomes law. If the General Assembly does not get the votes, or chooses not to act on the veto, the bill dies.
For an amendatory veto, the General Assembly has three options to choose from. As always, legislators have the option to not do anything and if nothing is done, the bill dies. The second option is to override the governor’s veto, but legislators must achieve a three-fifths vote and get 71 representatives and 36 senators to vote in favor of keeping the bill as is. Finally, if the legislators agree with the recommendations from the governor, this can be put to a simple vote, of 60 in the House and 30 in the Senate, as it would if amendments were made in the opposite chamber from where it was drafted. However, if the governor chooses to issue an amendatory veto after the May 31st deadline and the bill has an immediate effective date, then the bill must be put to a three-fifths vote. If the effective date is in the next fiscal year, only a simple majority vote is only needed.
As for the appropriations vetoes, a line-item veto can be overturned by achieving a three-fifths vote. If successful, the bill becomes a law in the format it was submitted to the governor. If the General Assembly chooses not to overturn the veto, the vetoed portions of the bill are removed, but the remainder of the bill becomes law. For a reduction veto, the rules change. If the General Assembly wishes to override the veto and does not want a reduction on a certain appropriation, all they need to achieve is a simple majority vote of 60 in the House and 30 in the Senate. This is the only veto that allows a simple majority vote to override a veto. However, if legislators choose to not do anything regarding the governor’s reduction veto, this time the bill is then signed into law, only changing the items the governor chose to reduce. This veto, again, becomes the only one to allow the bill to be considered dead if the legislature does not act.
Although vetoes serve as the executive branch’s check on legislative power, there are rules in place that must be followed. The governor of Illinois may only issue a veto, any of the four options, within 60 days of the bill passing the legislature. If the governor does not issue veto or sign the bill into law, the bill automatically becomes law, after the 60-day period. Vetoes also affect the passage date of the legislation. If a veto is overturned, the legislation’s passage date remains the same. If a veto, in the form of an amendatory or line veto, is accepted and then passed with the changes made by the governor, then the passage date of that legislation is moved to the date that the General Assembly accepted the changes from the executive branch.
In Illinois, the executive branch is not the only branch to have vetoing power. The legislative branch also has the power to veto, called a legislative veto. However, the legislative veto does not apply to legislation like a gubernatorial veto, but rather applies to the governor’s reorganization and reassignment functions, as outlined in Article 5 of the Illinois Constitution. The reorganization and reassignment functions refer to the governor’s power over the state agencies. Actions such as consolidating, creating new, and reorganizing state agencies are protected powers of the governor, but can all be vetoed by the legislative branch. For a legislative veto to go through, both chambers must achieve a simple majority of 60 in the House and 30 in the Senate. If successful, the changes do not take effect. Illinois is one of only seven states to allow its legislative branch to have vetoing power.
Although Veto Session suggests that only legislation vetoed by the governor will be worked on by legislators, that is not always the case. Veto Session is also used to work on legislation that did not make it to the governor’s desk during the Spring Session. Completely new legislation must be approved by a supermajority vote during veto session, rather than the simple majority.
Since the Illinois legislature is on a biennial schedule, every two years legislators must start from scratch on any legislation that was not signed into law during the previous General Assembly. If there is anything pressing that legislators want to get based passed through, Veto Session becomes a good the perfect time to push remaining legislation through both chambers and to the governor. The legislature did just that in Fall of 2021 when House Democrats used Veto Session to push a the gerrymandered congressional map through to the Senate and to the governor. The map was introduced around midnight on the first day of Veto Session, pushing purposefully to hopefully get legislators to just agree so they could go home for the night. The bill was pushed through without a committee hearing on the final project and no witnesses testified on it was not subject to witness testimony, leaving Illinoisans in the dark on a very serious issue. The map passed, 71-43 in the House and 41-18 in the Senate and was then signed by Governor Pritzker. Similar maps are The map is voted on every 10 years and used for redistricting Congressional and legislative seats, based on population.
In other years, Veto Session encapsulates just the opposite. In 2017, the Illinois House unanimously overrode Governor Rauner’s veto of the Debt Transparency Act with a 112-0 vote and the Senate with a 52-3 vote. The legislation, an initiative of Comptroller Susana Mendoza, requires Illinois agencies to report their monthly liabilities on a monthly versus annual basis.
Since 1970, when the Illinois legislature started officially convening for Veto Session, legislators have met for all but two years. In 2015, legislators were in a continual session over the Budget Impasse, so no official Veto Session was called. Legislators were in Session, but the regular Spring Session carried on throughout the year, in an effort to pass a state budget for Fiscal Year 2016. In 2020, Illinois also did not have a Veto Session, this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Illinois Democrats cited the unknown territory regarding the of the virus for reasons to cancel the in-person Session.
For 2024, Veto Session will take place November 12-14th and the 19th-21st for both the Senate and House chambers. To see more about Session times, watching or listening to Session and committee hearings, and see what legislation is pending for Veto Session, visit the ILGA website.