Congress passes a controversial bill with a Senate vote of 60–40, which the president then vetoes. Ten senators state that they will not seek to override this veto. What recourse does Congress have to check the president's power?

a)using public opinion to make the president rescind the veto

b)none because there is no majority to overturn the veto

c)taking the case to the Supreme Court to decide

d)overriding the veto with the votes it has

I think it's d (60/40 is 2/3 so they have the majority vote), but I don't know what "Ten senators state that they will not seek to override this veto" means. Are they going back on their vote to override the veto out of the 60/40 (making it 60/30) (can they even do that?). Sorry, that one part is just really confusing me.

Yeah, I picked D, but it turned out to be B. I'll ask my teacher about it, thanks for the help anyways!:)

Doesn't it depend on who those 10 senators are? The question doesn't state that all 10 are in the same party, does it?

60/30 would still override the veto, so the "10 senators" could be of either party -- but that means if even one were among the original 60, then there'd be no majority vote at all. So without a majority in the Senate, what do you think?

Well if there is no majority in the Senate, then b. But the question does not state any further details on the 10 senators :( and what you said is exactly where I'm unsure. If they are of the original 10, then there is no majority (thus b), but if they are not, then it should be d.

The question is confusing (maybe badly written) because it doesn't indicate which party each of the 10 belong to. If even one of the 10 is of the majority party, then it's B. But that's a big IF because the question doesn't state how many from each party.

You might speak with your teacher, give your reasons for answer B and for answer D, and see what happens.

You are correct that option (d) overriding the veto with the votes it has is the correct answer. Allow me to explain why.

In order to check the president's power to veto a bill, Congress has the ability to override the veto, assuming they have the necessary majority support. According to the U.S. Constitution, if Congress can gather a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, they can successfully override a presidential veto.

In this scenario, Congress passed the bill with a Senate vote of 60-40. This means that out of the 100 senators, 60 voted in favor of the bill and 40 voted against it. If this voting pattern holds true when the bill is brought back for a potential veto override, Congress would still have the necessary two-thirds majority in the Senate to override the president's veto.

The statement "Ten senators state that they will not seek to override this veto" suggests that ten senators who initially voted in favor of the bill are now indicating that they will not support an override of the president's veto. However, it is important to note that Senators can change their positions based on various factors, and their statements do not necessarily bind them to vote in a certain way. Therefore, their initial vote to pass the bill and the subsequent statement should be considered separately.

Ultimately, based on the initial voting record of 60-40 in the Senate, Congress would still have enough votes to override the veto and check the president's power, making option (d) the correct answer.