Answer: Congress can override a veto by passing the act by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. (Usually, an act is passed with a simple majority.) This check prevents the President from blocking an act when significant support for it exists. Two-thirds is a high standard to meet—broad support for an act is needed to reach this threshold. The President’s veto power is significant because Congress rarely overrides vetoes—out of 1,484 regular vetoes since 1789, only 7.1%, or 106, have been overridden.1
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