Deputies and senator unite in shared office – 04/29/2023 – Power

A group formed by six federal deputies and a senator from different Brazilian parties and states divides a joint technical team of 12 advisors in the National Congress with the aim of qualifying the political debate and optimizing resources.

Entitled shared cabinet, the initiative brings together parliamentarians from parties that are part of the base of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government and parties that consider themselves independent.

It was conceived in 2018 by senator Alessandro Vieira (PSDB-SE), by deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) and by former deputy Felipe Rigoni, who ran for União Brasil-ES and was not re-elected.

For this legislature, the group grew and also included Pedro Campos (PSB-PE), Duarte Jr. (PSB-MA), Amom Mandel (Cidadania-AM), Duda Salabert (PDT-MG) and Camila Jara (PT-MS) —all debutants in Congress.

“The profile that called our attention was again that of first-term parliamentarians with different ideas, but with a very strong political profile, from the point of view of protagonism and quality of action”, says Vieira.

The senator also assesses that the cabinet allows anticipating debates that will be held in Congress and indicating possible consensus around matters.

“There is the point of speeding up the agendas, because we start listening to people with completely different views. You also anticipate the correction of edges of difficulty in understanding. This makes us very clear about what is possible to do in terms of negotiation and brings us very quickly, for example, the portrait of what is understood within each of these parties.”

“These are parliamentarians willing to make a different policy, not a common policy as we are seeing with lowliness, lies, frustration of expectations”, says Duarte Jr.

The cabinet has three main areas of activity: inspection, public policies and legislation. Among the main agendas are education, environment, human rights and public safety.

The initiative is supported financially from transfers from the cabinet budget of each parliamentarian: deputies transfer 12.67% of their quota, while the senator, 12.71%. With this, the initiative claims to save about 20% of the resources of each office, since it has less expenses with hiring personnel.

The team is established through a national selection process — more than 14,000 people applied to try for a seat in this legislature. The group includes lawyers and specialists in public policies, in addition to an economist and a data analyst.

The cabinet holds two weekly meetings with parliamentarians, although not always with the participation of all of them, in a room in Vieira’s office in the Senate, where the group’s structure is located.

On Tuesday afternoons, parliamentarians and advisors discuss the agenda of the National Congress.

On Wednesdays, over breakfast with vegan delicacies, such as cakes, cookies and snacks —Duda Salabert is vegan—, they deal with issues of internal functioning, in addition to discussing the group’s political activities and possible joint agendas. A Sheet accompanied some meetings that took place this month.

On the 18th, the discussion was conducted by a legislative advisor and revolved around the session of Congress that was scheduled to take place that day. Only one deputy did not participate.

In the beginning, he explained the functioning of a session of Congress, since most deputies had never participated in one before, and clarified doubts. Afterwards, he unraveled each of the presidential vetoes that were scheduled to be appreciated — the session, however, ended up being postponed.

At the end of each explanation, the advisor indicated what the government’s signaling on the subject was, if any, and presented an orientation prepared by cabinet technicians, which may or may not be complied with by each parliamentarian.

At the meeting, there was disagreement between them on some vetoes, such as one that dealt with free baggage dispatch.

Alessandro Vieira says that there is no imposition of adherence to agendas in the group. “The cabinet enters with the technical production. The political decision belongs to the parliamentarian. We are not committed to unanimity of votes, it is not a political party, there is no closure in question.”

On the following day (19), with only 4 of the 7 parliamentarians present and led by the chief of staff, internal operating issues were discussed, such as the need to obtain a badge for a legislative advisor on the team to have access to the plenary sessions of the Houses, and agendas of interest to the group, such as the Fake News PL.

Duda signaled that the PDT bench would meet that afternoon with the PL rapporteur, Deputy Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), to address the issue —and heard an appeal for an advisor from the shared cabinet to be able to accompany the meeting and, thus , stay more abreast of the discussion of the text. Interlocution initiatives between the technical team and advisors of each parliamentarian are encouraged.

At one point in the meeting, the chief of staff asked the reporter to leave the room, on the grounds that they were going to deal with sensitive issues. In this case, the parliamentarians discussed what they called the Fies PEC, a proposal that should be filed by members of the shared cabinet in the Chamber and Senate.

Although most parliamentarians have ties to political renewal movements and organizations, this is not a prerequisite for joining the cabinet. Duda Salabert even criticizes them.

“I recognize that we have to strengthen the parties in Brazil. We live in a context of erosion of the intellectuality, of emptying of political content in the parties. And these movements, like Renova among others, I recognize that they end up taking advantage of this scenario and deepening even more the political problem in the country.”

A novelty this year is the participation of a deputy from the same party as the President of the Republic. For Camila Jara, this could end up facilitating the relationship with the Executive.

“I bring information on how we are thinking, how we want to act in the House. And when we can’t add up on some issues that go against the interest of the party and the government, the opinion is respected.”

Alessandro Vieira also says that there is no established rotation scheme to define who will be the cabinet’s eventual spokesperson on certain agendas.

He explains that this ends up being due to the parliamentarians’ affinity with each subject — and denies that it could give rise to ego disputes between them.

“The agendas are adjusted by profile, we try not to compete for the spotlight, it is not necessary. Their fight is more in the plenary than in the shared. This constant movement gives space for everyone to exercise their role. We are not from the same state, so , basically, you don’t have any disagreement. In this format, which operates more nationally, we didn’t have any conflicts in these first four months.”