Powers
- The governor has the legislative power to submit recommendations and to call special sessions when he finds them necessary.
- The governor has veto powers. All bills must be sent to the Governor before becoming law. The Governor may sign the bill, let it sit unsigned for seven days after which it becomes law, or veto the legislation. After a veto, the bill returns to its house of origin and may be overridden by two-thirds of the vote in each house.
- The Governor also has the power to use a line-item veto. He may send legislation back to the legislature with recommendations and amendments. The legislature must either approve the changes by a majority in each house, or override the veto with a two-thirds majority in each house.
- The Governor is commander-in-chief of Virginia's militia forces.
- The Governor may also communicate with other States and foreign powers.
- The Governor has the power to fill vacancies in positions unless the position is appointed by the legislature.
- The Governor may commute fines or sentences and issue pardons. The Governor may also restore voting rights and overturn other political penalties on individuals.
Read more about this topic: Governor Of Virginia
Famous quotes containing the word powers:
“Everyone confesses in the abstract that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us all; but practically most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“For human nature, being more highly pitched, selved, and distinctive than anything in the world, can have been developed, evolved, condensed, from the vastness of the world not anyhow or by the working of common powers but only by one of finer or higher pitch and determination than itself.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)