
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document affected by Public Law 106-364 Section 2]
[CITE: 48USC1575]

 
              TITLE 48--TERRITORIES AND INSULAR POSSESSIONS
 
                       CHAPTER 12--VIRGIN ISLANDS
 
                   SUBCHAPTER III--LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
 
Sec. 1575. Legislative procedure


(a) Quorum and method of voting on bills

    The quorum of the legislature shall consist of eight of its members. 
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.

(July 22, 1954, ch. 558, Sec. 9, 68 Stat. 501; Pub. L. 90-496, Secs. 2, 
3, Aug. 23, 1968, 82 Stat. 837; Pub. L. 95-134, title III, Sec. 301(b), 
Oct. 15, 1977, 91 Stat. 1163; Pub. L. 95-348, Sec. 4(c)(1), Aug. 18, 
1978, 92 Stat. 490; Pub. L. 96-470, title II, Sec. 206(d), Oct. 19, 
1980, 94 Stat. 2244.)


                               Amendments

    1980--Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 96-470 substituted provision requiring a 
listing of all laws enacted by the legislature each year be transmitted 
with the annual report to Congress required by section 1591 of this 
title for provision requiring copies of all laws enacted by the 
legislature be transmitted within 15 days of their enactment by the 
Governor to the Secretary of the Interior and by the Secretary annually 
to Congress.
    1978--Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 95-348 inserted provision authorizing the 
Virgin Islands Legislature to determine other dates on which the fiscal 
year shall commence.
    1977--Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 95-134 inserted ``, 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'' after ``shall not take 
effect''.
    1968--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90-496, Sec. 2, increased the quorum 
requirement from seven to eight members.
    Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 90-496, Sec. 3, inserted requirement that when 
a bill is returned by the Governor to the legislature, a motion of a 
member of the legislature is necessary for the legislature to reconsider 
the bill, and substituted provisions that if, after reconsideration by 
the legislature, two-thirds of all the members of the legislature pass a 
bill returned by the Governor, it shall be a law for provisions that if, 
after reconsideration by the legislature, two-thirds of all the members 
of the legislature agree to pass the bill, it shall be presented anew to 
the Governor for his approval, provisions that if the Governor does not 
approve the bill, the bill shall be sent to the President of the United 
States for his approval, provisions that if the President disapproves 
the bill, the bill shall be returned to the Governor, stating the 
President's disapproval, and it shall not be a law, and provisions that 
if the President neither approves nor disapproves the bill within 90 
days after it was sent to him by the Governor, the bill shall be a law 
as if the President had signed it.


                    Effective Date of 1968 Amendment

    Section 2 of Pub. L. 90-496 provided that the amendment made by that 
section is effective on date of enactment of Pub. L. 90-496, which was 
approved Aug. 23, 1968.
    Amendment of provisions of section necessary to authorize the 
holding of an election for Governor and Lieutenant Governor on Nov. 3, 
1970, effective Jan. 1, 1970, and all other amendments of provisions of 
section, unless otherwise expressly provided by Pub. L. 90-496, 
effective Jan. 4, 1971, see section 16 of Pub. L. 90-496, set out as a 
note under section 1591 of this title.
