Law may oblige Chamber to analyze impeachment requests within 30 days

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD), filed a bill this Thursday (23) that obliges the president of the Chamber of Deputies to analyze requests for impeachment against the President of the Republic, Ministers and other authorities within 30 days.

The text updates the legislation that became known as the “Law of Impeachment” (Law 1079/1950), and which had to be brought before the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in cases involving former presidents Fernando Collor de Melo (then in the PRN) in 1992, and Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016.

The presentation of the bill takes place amid the crisis between Pacheco and the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), due to the resumption of the rite of analysis of provisional measures sent by the government, which must now go through committees mixtures of previous analysis. This type of procedure had been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and was questioned by Lira – contrary to this model.

Pacheco presented the update of the law of impeachment on the same day that he determined the return of the joint committees, a few hours after being the target of harsh criticism from Lira. In theory, the text of the new legislation weakens the power of the president of the Chamber to make negotiations to delay the progress of impeachment requests, imposing a time limit, under the risk of being automatically archived – currently there is no deadline for appreciation.

Law will give 30 days to analyze impeachment requests

According to PL 1388/2023 (see in full), the complaint against the President, Vice President, Minister of State, Attorney General of the Union or Commander of the Armed Forces will be presented to the Chamber of Deputies with a period of preliminary analysis “by the President of the House” within a period of up to 30 working days, which can be archived or submitted for deliberation by the Board of Directors.

“The silence of the President after the deadline will be considered a tacit rejection, with the consequent filing of the complaint”, says the text.

However, the project also provides that the leaders of the Chamber or up to 1/3 of the deputies present, within ten days, an appeal to the decision that the president of the house takes. If approved, the project will go to a special committee with a period of up to 20 days for analysis before going to the plenary.

The vote on the opinion will have to count with 2/3 of the Chamber of Deputies for the Senate to be authorized to proceed with the process.

Among the crimes of responsibility that can trigger an impeachment process, are those of “preventing, restricting or hindering” the functioning of the independent constitutional powers, “disseminating, directly or indirectly, by any means, facts known to be untrue, with the aim of delegitimizing democratic institutions” and “committing any of the crimes against the Democratic State of Law, defined in the criminal legislation”, among others.

According to Rodrigo Pacheco, the amendment brings “greater legal certainty to the accused and predictability for the accusers”. According to him, the alterations were elaborated based on the analyzes made by the commission of jurists installed last year to update the legislation.

“The collegiate, composed of members of the highest caliber and of the most diverse ideological colors, held several meetings, studies, debates, discussions and, after eight hard months of work, presented an elegant, consistent and grounded draft of the Law”, he pointed out. in justification.

Among the members of the collegiate were Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, of the STF, as president of the commission; minister Antonio Anastasia, of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), among others.

The project was submitted to the analysis of the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) on the morning of this Friday (24). Arthur Lira has not yet commented on the Senate President’s proposal.