Other LanguagesThe call of a special extraordinary session of the legislature does not deprive the Governor of his constitutional power to veto bills within ten days after presentment to him and after adjournment of the legislature when the general adjournment of the legislature has prevented the return within the five‑day period.
When the governor vetoes a bill after the legislature has adjourned, and transmits the vetoed bill to the secretary of state for delivery to the legislature at its next session pursuant to the constitution, and the legislature next meets in a special session, the legislature may choose to act on overriding the veto during the special session, but its failure to consider an override during the special session does not preclude taking the matter up at the next ensuing regular legislative session.
(1) Because the governor's veto of § 2 of Substitute Senate Bill No. 2408 (chapter 296, Laws of 1975, 1st Ex. Sess.), the public agencies now responsible for the performance of the functions thereby proposed by this act to be transferred to a new "public employment relations commission" will continue to perform those functions after September 8, 1975, in the absence of further legislative action. (2) In view of the governor's veto of § 4 of Substitute Senate Bill No. 2500 (chapter 288, Laws of 1975, 1st Ex.Sess.), certificated school district employees will, in the absence of further legislative action, continue after January 1, 1976, to be governed by the provisions of the school employees' professional negotiations act (chapter 28A.72 RCW), notwithstanding the express repeal thereof by the 1975 act, except to the extent that such provisions of the new law as are unaffected by the veto are in conflict with the earlier law. (3) Administration of the provisions of chapter 288, Laws of 1975, 1st Ex. Sess., and chapter 296, Laws of 1975, 1st Ex. Sess., following their respective effective dates, by a new state agency will be unnecessary unless the governor's vetoes of portions thereof are overridden by the legislature or the vetoed sections are reenacted in a different form.
Where during a legislative session and prior to the general adjournment thereof a bill not subject to referendum and bearing an immediate effective date is partially vetoed by the governor, the remainder of the bill takes effect immediately and the secretary of state is required to record it and assign it a chapter number under RCW 44.20.020.
When an act is vetoed by the governor under Article III, § 12 of the Washington constitution, and is returned with his objections to the house in which it originated during the same session as is provided for therein, the power of the legislature to override the veto is not dependent on that power being exercised during the same legislative session so as to preclude it from overridding the veto unless it does so before the end of the session.
The ability of the first extra special session of the 1975 legislature to override a gubernatorial veto of a bill passed by the legislature prior to 1975 is not clear; accordingly, rather than attempting to cause any such previously vetoed bills to become law by a simple veto override, it is suggested that in order to remove any doubts as to the validity of the resulting laws the legislature should, instead, pass those laws again in the ordinary manner.