Government closes agreement on sanitation decree – 07/11/2023 – Market

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) reached an agreement with Senate leaders on a new sanitation decree and, with that, avoided a major defeat.

The decision was announced by Minister Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations), after a meeting at the official residence of the Senate, with the president of the house, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) and government and opposition leaders.

With this, the government prevented the vote on the PDL (Legislative Decree Project) from entering the Senate agenda this Tuesday (11), which, if approved, would overturn changes drawn up by the Executive in April in the Sanitation Framework —which received approval from parliamentarians in 2020.

The agreement with the Senate foresees that the federal government will revoke the decrees and issue a new one later this week, without the points that Congress displeased. With that, the issue leaves the agenda of the Senate.

“The government, in dialogue with senators, with parliamentarians, will correct what was pointed out by parliamentarians and will revoke questioned points and edit a new one with what has consensus”, said Padilha. “If Congress wants to present a PL, it is an initiative of Congress,” she added.

Asked if the Chamber agreed with the agreement made with the Senate, Padilha said that he should talk to the deputies who authored the PDLs by this Wednesday (12) and that he maintains a dialogue on the subject with the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). .

The proposal for a new decree removes the loophole that dispenses with bidding for state-owned sanitation companies, as anticipated by the Sheet. This was one of the most controversial points of the acts published by President Lula (PT) and which were questioned by Congress.

In May, the plenary of the Chamber approved the overthrow of parts of the presidential decrees. The majority of deputies voted to stop the loophole for state companies to provide services without bidding, the loosening of the rules for state companies to prove technical and financial capacity and the possibility for companies to regularize precarious contracts.

The main criticism of parliamentarians in relation to Lula’s decrees was that the president used the text to create new rules, which should be approved by Congress. Therefore, the decrees would not only have regulated the sanitation sector.

According to the proposal presented to the senators, the new decree to be published by Lula maintains the possibility of transitioning to the regularization of contracts until December 31, 2025, guaranteeing access to resources and the non-stopping of investments.

“With this, we hope that the various municipalities in situations of irregular contracts and pending regionalization will be able to regularize themselves by December 2025, either through proof of economic and financial capacity, through direct provision or concession of services, without that there is commitment of the necessary investments for the universalization in this period”, says document to which the Sheet had access.

The Planalto Palace and the Ministry of Cities closed a text on the eve of the meeting with senators. Lula met with Padilha and with the leader of the government in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), this Monday afternoon (10) to give approval to the negotiation.

Despite the agreement with the Senate being closed this Tuesday, until last week, there was still no agreement on the new text with the Chamber of Deputies, through which it will also have to pass through.

Talks between the government and Arthur Lira have not advanced. The deputy from Alagoas dedicated the week to dealing with economic guidelines, such as Tax Reform, and did not respond to requests from Lula’s allies to discuss the issue.

Lira would even have been bothered by the fact that the government wanted to deal with the matter while other agendas, considered a priority, were being dealt with in the Chamber.

After approving the Tax Reform and the new Carf rules, however, Lira did not guide the new fiscal framework, which was left for August, and determined the House’s white recess, without sessions.

The president of the Chamber traveled to the United States and, with his vacation in advance, embarked on Wesley Safadão’s Cruise through the Caribbean.