Commission dilutes powers of the ministries of the Environment and Indigenous Peoples

A commission of deputies and senators approved this Wednesday (24) alterations in the structure of the second echelon of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). When analyzing MP 1,154, signed on January 1st to reorganize ministries and secretariats along the lines of the PT, the parliamentarians removed attributions from the Ministry of the Environment and Indigenous Peoples and even diluted the power of the Ministry of Agrarian Development vis-à-vis the National Supply Company (Conab).

In order for it not to expire, the MP needs to be sanctioned by the House and the Senate by June 1. If the measure “lapses”, it could delay government projects and even force the reallocation of civil servants, with direct effects on the accounts and reflections on the division of positions that helped in the composition of the Government’s allied base.

With the review carried out by the commission, led by deputy rapporteur Isnaldo Bulhões (MDB-AL), Marina Silva’s portfolio should no longer be controlled by the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). The CAR database is used to control deforestation on properties, and should be under the responsibility of the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services. According to the deputy, the alteration would be to guarantee the balance between development and environmental protection.

The Ministry of the Environment should also lose the management of the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA), which will migrate, according to a proposal approved by parliamentarians, to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development.

The management of the National Information System on Basic Sanitation (Sinisa), the National Information System on Solid Waste Management (Sinir) and the National Water Resources Management System (Singreh) will also leave the Ministry of the Environment to be left to position of the Ministry of Cities, commanded by Jader Filho (MDB-PA)

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples also lost out with the withdrawal of the power to demarcate indigenous lands, which should become the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. Bulhões considered the change important to ensure “neutrality” in the demarcation processes, and denies that the measure empties Minister Sônia Guajajara’s portfolio.

“The proposal to withdraw the demarcation of indigenous lands and Funai from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples is one of the worst signs. We are saying that the indigenous people do not have exemption, to do what is best for them even in relation to their lands”, said Minister Marina Silva in a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies this Wednesday.

The parliamentary review also covered Conab, the target of dispute between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agrarian Development, the portfolio to which the company is currently integrated. The body, responsible for organizing and defining the food price policy, was allocated to Agriculture during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), but changed to the portfolio commanded by Paulo Teixeira (PT) in the Lula government.

Formally, Conab will remain in the Ministry of Agrarian Development, but the Agriculture portfolio will be responsible for part of the company’s attributions with regard to price policies and regulatory stocks. Some deputies even suggested the extinction of the Ministry of Agrarian Development during the processing of the MP, but the rapporteur did not accept the amendments.

Still in terms of government structure, the text approved by the commission this Wednesday provides for the extinction of the National Health Foundation (Funasa), determined by Lula himself in a specific MP. Some Centrão parliamentarians defended the recreation of the organ.

Carf’s MP must expire before a project of the same content is voted on

Expirations of other provisional measures, which are still under analysis in their respective joint commissions, may affect the economic area even more directly. The change made in the Administrative Council of Tax Appeals (Carf) to determine the return of the pro-Tax tiebreaker in the discussions in the Court, may fall.

Carf judges administrative proceedings against Revenue decisions and since 2020, decisions, in the event of a tie, benefit the taxpayer, which displeases the government. The expectation was that the change could reinforce the farm’s cash flow. Already predicting defeat, the government should turn the MP into a bill.

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said this Wednesday that the expiration of Carf’s MP is “very bad”, but that he is negotiating with the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), so that the bill can be approved by the House.

“Lira has been very prudent with the voting schedule. He said it is a sensitive issue, but I told him that we have the support of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), of the STJ minister and that the OECD has already said that the Brazil would not even enter the group with the previous rule,” Haddad told reporters.

Another measure that is about to expire is the one that maintains the value of R$ 600 of the Auxílio Brasil — which will once again be called Bolsa Família — and increases the value of the Auxílio Gás. The MP has already been approved by a specific joint commission, but still needs to be approved by the full Congress.

Atlantic Forest MP provokes dispute between parliamentarians

Another matter about to win, and which has been causing discord between deputies and senators, is the Atlantic Forest MP.

The text approved by the deputies allowed the deforestation of the Atlantic Forest to carry out infrastructure works, without the need for a prior study of the environmental impact. The senators removed the “jabutis” – jargon used to define strange passages incorporated into the text –, since the MP, edited during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro, did not deal with the Atlantic Forest biome and contested the passage on environmental licensing. The MP will have to go back to the appreciation of the deputies, also running the risk of expiring.

How are MPs processed?

The Provisional Measures are norms with the force of law, edited by the President of the Republic in situations of relevance and urgency.

Despite producing immediate legal effects, the Provisional Measure needs further appreciation by the Houses of the National Congress (Chamber and Senate) to become definitively an ordinary law.

If it is not voted on within 45 days, counting from its publication, it will enter into an emergency regime in the House in which it is found (House or Senate), with all other legislative deliberations of the House in which it is being suspended until the voting is completed. is in process.

The rite of processing the Provisional Measures was even the reason for a clash between the mayors, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) and Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) at the beginning of the year.

This is because, with the norms of social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Congress began to dispense with MPs being analyzed by mixed commissions, formed by deputies and senators.

Without the joint committee, the text of the Provisional Measure goes straight to the plenary of the Chamber and, if approved, goes to the Senate. Lira, who defended the procedure adopted by the pandemic, gave in to the formation of joint committees, but still continues to criticize this system.