private, civil or criminal, continued in force and effect by this Act, except as herein
otherwise provided, and to enact new laws not inconsistent with any law of the United
States applicable to the Virgin Islands.

9. QUORUM AND METHOD OF VOTING ON BILLS.

 (a) The quorum of the legislature shall consist of seven of its members. No bill
shall become 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

 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.

 (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 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 proceed to reconsider the bill. If, after such
 consideration, two -thirds of all the members of the legislature agree to
 pass the bill, it shall become a law. If any bill presented to the Governor
 contains several items of appropriations of money, he may strike out any one or more
 of such items of the bill, which shall include the appropriation therefore. In
 such case, he shall append to the bill, at the time of signing it, a statement of the item
 or items to which he objects, and the item or items, so objected to shall not take
 effect.

 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