Congress will have a record amount of amendments with Lula – 03/12/2023 – Politics

After the end of the so-called rapporteur amendments, used as a bargaining chip in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, Congress negotiated with the PT, amended the Budget and will have a record amount in amendments this year. That’s R$ 46.3 billion for parliamentarians.

The huge numbers to attend to parliamentary projects did not guarantee President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) the formation of a solid support base in Congress. They signal a narrowing of the Executive’s negotiation margin, with deputies and senators less dependent on the Planalto Palace to carry out works in their electoral strongholds.

Resources for 2023 exceed the amount for 2020, the year of increased public spending due to the pandemic. The unprecedented amounts were obtained this year despite the fact that the STF (Federal Supreme Court) banned the use of rapporteur amendments at the end of 2022, claiming unconstitutionality in this type of expense.

There were R$ 19.4 billion in amendments of this type to be distributed by the congressional leadership in political negotiations in 2023. Surprised by the court’s decision, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco PSD-MG), and leaders of the centrão began to sew an agreement with Lula.

In practice, the result is that Congress kept control over all the money that would go to the amendments extinguished by the Supreme Court.

A part of the budget was used to inflate the individual amendments – to which every deputy and senator is entitled. The other slice passed into the hands of Lula’s ministries.

The PT presented this agreement as an equal division. However, government political articulators admit, behind the scenes, that the R$ 9.8 billion that were inherited by the ministries after the STF decision will be used to meet requests from parliamentarians – that is, as if they were amendments too.

The government is not obliged to execute these R$9.8 billion according to the requests of members of the Chamber and the Senate.

But, to try to increase Lula’s support in Congress, the Planalto Palace even plans to use part of the money to fulfill promises of amendments made by Lira in the campaign for the reelection of the Chamber and political agreements made last year, before the decision of the STF. .

In addition to maintaining power over the resources that were for rapporteur amendments, Congress also boosted another mechanism: commission amendments.

This type of resource jumped from approximately R$400 million last year to approximately R$7.6 billion in the first year of the new Lula government.

This means that the leadership of the Chamber and the Senate secured one more slice of the Budget for parliamentary interests. It was a reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, say influential members of the Legislature.

The money will be divided according to political alliances, and the operation will be led by senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), who is the Budget rapporteur and assumed the presidency of a commission that holds almost all of the cake of these amendments.

Last Monday (6), Lira exposed the fragility of the PT’s political alliances in conversation with businessmen. He stated that Lula was democratically elected, but with a minimal margin.

He also said that the government does not have the votes to approve laws by simple majority, much less to advance constitutional proposals, as is the case with tax reform —one of the priorities of the Planalto Palace for 2023.

In an attempt to expand the base in Congress, the Planalto Palace has also offered second and third-level positions, mainly to deputies.

Despite Lula having given ministries to centrist parties, such as the MDB, PSD and União Brasil, parliamentarians from these acronyms have not yet established a solid alliance with the government.

This operation has been commanded by Minister Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations).

Members of the Planalto Palace recognize that rebuilding the base is more difficult in the face of an elected Congress more to the right and with leaders who were aligned with Bolsonaro.

There are complaints in Congress about the delay in releasing political appointments to government positions.

But, according to Lula’s assistants, the strategy is to respond to requests according to the need to approve proposals of interest to the Planalto in Congress.

In the case of amendments, almost half of the budget reserved for parliamentarians is for individual amendments. They add up to R$ 21.2 billion this year and are divided equally among all deputies (R$ 32 million each) and between senators (R$ 59 million).

These values ​​represent a strong increase over the pattern of individual amendments from previous years. In 2021 and 2022, for example, they were approximately R$ 18 million per parliamentarian, with equal amounts for deputies and senators.

This was the result of negotiations with Lula at the end of last year regarding the division of funds for the now extinct rapporteur’s amendments. As senators had a larger share in the mechanism widely used in the Bolsonaro government, they were entitled to a higher amount.

The individual ones, which have now been inflated, are mandatory. This means that the government needs to carry out the projects and works indicated by the congressman, even if he is from the opposition.

The Planalto Palace has little room for maneuver with this budget. It manages, for example, to prioritize amendments from allies and leave those from opponents for December, that is, the payment is for the following year.

In addition, the plan of political articulators is to present projects from each ministry to try to convince deputies and senators to use the amendments (individual, state bench, commission or the R$ 9.8 billion reserved for them) in government public policies Squid.

In this way, he would maintain credit to the congressman, who would continue to be the sponsor of the initiative in his own electoral stronghold.