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In the USA does the US president have any mechanism to propose new laws or the abolishment of old laws? Is the proposal of new laws that members of congress enjoy a privilege that is also extended to the president?

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    You might be referring to the specific legislative process of sponsoring a bill, which is more specific than the general and colloquial notion of "proposing" something (which could arguably be accomplished by anyone at all simply saying "I propose we do X"). Commented 2 days ago
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    It's done all the time, by a letter to Congress, by meeting members of Congress, by making a statement to the media. Maybe @NuclearHoagie is right and you mean more than simply "proposing". Perhaps you should close this question, since it has answers, and ask a more detailed and specific one. The President cannot introduce legislation in Congress. Commented yesterday

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The President has no power to propose new laws in the way "that members of congress enjoy."

See Article 1, Section 1:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

See also the absence of any legislative authority in Article 2.

Of course, colloquially, the President can "propose" whatever they want, including by from "time to time giv[ing] to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend[ing] to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient" (Article II, Section 3). There are often discussions between the White House and the controlling party in Congress. All such proposals though are nothing like the power that "members of congress enjoy" (or more precisely, that Congress enjoys).

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    In particular, it's customary for the President to propose a budget each year. But as you say, Congress is under no obligation to give it any particular consideration, no more than if Fred Hayseed of Podunk, NY sent in his idea of what the budget should be. Indeed, my impression is that the President's budget, at least in recent decades, is mainly a venue for political posturing, and Congress largely ignores it. Commented yesterday
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The president cannot introduce a bill in Congress.

Any member of the Senate or the House of Representative can do so, except that senators cannot introduce any bill that would require anyone to pay any tax.

However, the President often asks Congress to pass some particular bill proposed by the President, and usually members of his party in Congress support the proposal and often other members do.

Occasionally the president calls a joint session of Congress (i.e. a session in which the Senate and the House of Representatives meet simultaneously in one chamber) in order to make a speech before them urging them to pass some particular article of legislation. That is what Franklin Roosevelt did on December 8, 1941, urging them to declare war against Japan, whose military had attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on the previous day. It is also what Dwight Eisenhower did in January 1953, when he urged them to pass legislation requiring the construction of the Interstate Highway system.

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    It should noted since it was mentioned that the "Senators can't introduce revenue bills" workaround is to take any House passed bill and replace the text wholesale since there aren't restrictions on amendments. Commented yesterday
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In Switzerland, that's actually the normal way how a law is proposed. If the federal council (the executive branch) wants a new law, they write it down, together with a rationale as to why they think this law (or change in law) is needed. It then goes to the parliament, who decides. They have several options: They can accept it unaltered, they can ammend or change it, they can refuse it or they can return it to the sender with proposals for changes.

A member of the parliament on the other hand, cannot directly propose a new law. They can, however, write a so called "motion", which is a request to the federal council to propose a new law regarding some topic. The motion needs to be passed by parliament as well, and if accepted, the federal council needs to make a proposal.

It now gets funny: While the executive now needs to propose a new law, they don't need to support the change. So they can either delay their proposal, write a bad proposal or write a proposal but recommend that it be dismissed. Until the next motion is passed by parliament...

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  • Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on Law Meta, or in Law Chat. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. Commented 11 hours ago

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