The Pegislative Process: Step Six
Bill goes to the Governor

The legislature must send the bill to the Governor within 30 days after it has passed both chambers. Once the bill reaches the Governor’s desk, he or she has three options.

First, the Governor can choose to do nothing. If no action is taken within 60 days after the bill reaches the Governor, it automatically becomes law.

Second, the Governor can sign the bill into law exactly as it is. When a bill becomes law, by whatever means, it is called a Public Act and is assigned a Public Act number. All Public Act numbers are in the form XX-YYYY. The Xs denote the General Assembly in which the bill became law. The Ys are assigned in the order in which the bill is signed or otherwise becomes law. So, Public Act 92-0021 was enacted by the 92nd General Assembly and was the twenty-first bill to become law during that General Assembly.

Third, the Governor can veto the bill. The Governor has two types of vetoes which are applicable to IMRF. The first type is the total veto. In this case, the Governor vetoes the entire bill. The second type is an amendatory veto. In this case, the Governor makes specific recommendations for changes to the bill. With an amendatory veto, the Governor is saying that he or she would sign the bill into law if the changes were made. In either case, the Governor issues a “veto message.”
In the veto message, the Governor tells what type of veto it is and, for an amendatory veto, the specific changes he or she is recommending. The veto message is then forwarded to the General Assembly. The General Assembly has a few options:

• It can do nothing. If so, the bill is considered dead, even in the case of an amendatory veto.
• It can override the veto. If three-fifths of the members in each of the chambers votes to override the veto, then it becomes law in the form in which the bill was originally sent to the Governor.
• In the case of an amendatory veto, the legislature may agree with the recommendations made by the Governor by a simple majority vote in each of the chambers. If this happens, the bill becomes law.

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