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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 1575. Legislative procedure
(a) Quorum and method of voting on bills
The number of members of the legislature needed to constitute a
quorum shall be determined by the laws of the Virgin Islands. No
bill shall become a law unless it shall have been passed at a
meeting, at which a quorum was present, by the affirmative vote of
a majority of the members present and voting, which vote shall be
by yeas and nays.
(b) Enacting clause of acts
The enacting clause of all acts shall be as follows: "Be it
enacted by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands".
(c) Governor's message and budget
The Governor shall submit at the opening of each regular session
of the legislature a message on the state of the Virgin Islands and
a budget of estimated receipts and expenditures, which shall be the
basis of the appropriation bills for the ensuing fiscal year, which
shall commence on the first day of July or such other date as the
Legislature of the Virgin Islands may determine.
(d) Approval and disapproval of bills
Every bill passed by the legislature shall, before it becomes a
law, be presented to the Governor. If the Governor approves the
bill, he shall sign it. If the Governor disapproves the bill, he
shall, except as hereinafter provided, return it, with his
objections, to the legislature within ten days (Sundays excepted)
after it shall have been presented to him. If the Governor does not
return the bill within such period, it shall be a law in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless the legislature by
adjournment prevents its return, in which case it shall be a law if
signed by the Governor within thirty days after it shall have been
presented to him; otherwise it shall not be a law. When a bill is
returned by the Governor to the legislature with his objections,
the legislature shall enter his objections at large on its journal
and, upon motion of a member of the legislature, proceed to
reconsider the bill. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of
all the members of the legislature pass the bill, it shall be a
law. If any bill presented to the Governor contains several items
of appropriation of money, he may object to one or more of such
items, or any part or parts, portion or portions thereof, while
approving the other items, parts, or portions of the bill. In such
a case he shall append to the bill, at the time of signing it, a
statement of the items, or parts or portions thereof, to which he
objects, and the items, or parts or portions thereof, so objected
to shall not take effect, unless the legislature, after
reconsideration upon motion of a member thereof, passes such items,
parts, or portions so objected to by a vote of two-thirds of all
the members of the legislature.
(e) Use of prior appropriations upon failure to pass appropriation
bills
If at the termination of any fiscal year the legislature shall
have failed to pass appropriation bills providing for payment of
the obligations and necessary current expenses of the government of
the Virgin Islands for the ensuing fiscal year, then the several
sums appropriated in the last appropriation bills for the objects
and purposes therein specified, so far as the same may be
applicable, shall be deemed to be reappropriated item by item.
(f) Journal of proceedings; contents
The legislature shall keep a journal of its proceedings and
publish the same. Every bill passed by the legislature and the yeas
and nays on any question shall be entered on the journal.
(g) Transmittal of laws to Congress
A listing of all laws enacted by the legislature each year shall
be transmitted with the annual report to Congress required pursuant
to section 1591 of this title.
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