Why bills are signed with multiple pens

The idea is that presidents, governors, and mayors reward supporters of the measures with mementos — often engraved — to acknowledge their efforts to gain passage. Attorney General Robert F. Martin Luther King Jr. When President Gerald Ford signed the pardon for President Nixon, he used only one pen to sign the formal document. George W. Bush did not follow the tradition. He used only one pen to sign all legislation. While Biden used one pen for his first three orders on Wednesday, some viewers noticed him reaching for a series of different pens while signing orders for the US pandemic response on Thursday.

The pens then stayed with the orders. Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games. The pens are essentially government souvenirs often given as gifts to commemorate the signing of orders or bills.

In a White House video in , Lisa Brown, White House staff secretary at the time, said she wasn't sure exactly when the tradition started, but that John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson used multiple pens to sign legislation during their terms. It may date back as far as the Franklin D. But the pens weren't just given out at signing ceremonies. After Johnson signed the Tax Bill in , he brought four of the pens used in the signing to Jacqueline Kennedy, according to a diary entry from Johnson's wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

One pen was for Kennedy, one for the John F. A more modern example is when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in , using 22 pens in the process. And Obama had practice. In , when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- the very first bill he signed into law -- he used seven pens. As he signed, he gave the pens out as gifts, including to Ledbetter herself.

Trump broke tradition with his preferred pen. Of course, it's not just the number of pens that matters, but the type. Biden, for example, reinvoked tradition by using a Cross pen, specifically the Cross Century II, according to manufacturer A. Former president Donald Trump initially used the Century II felt tip pen, but then -- like so many facets of his presidency -- broke with tradition, instead preferring a Sharpie.

Presidents Obama, George W. Bush were also known to use Cross pens, but the official Cross-White House program didn't begin until Clinton.