Lira gives in, but wants an end to parity in the analysis of MPs

The presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), reached an understanding this Tuesday (28) to resume the regular functioning of the joint committees of deputies and senators dedicated to to the analysis of the provisional measures (MPs) edited by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

After almost two months of tense clash, which prevented the appreciation of dozens of provisional measures (MPs), Lira ended up giving in and accepted Pacheco’s express determination, made last week, for leaders of both Houses to indicate the members of the collegiate. With the pacification, the president of the Senate hopes that the compositions will be made next week and the return of the constitutional rite of the MPs, suspended by the pandemic, will take place again normally.

In the agreement between the two, signed at the end of the morning after a meeting at the official residence of the President of the Senate, two “weightings” by Lira were presented on behalf of the deputies on the commissions, which will still be debated by the senators.

Lira wants to set a deadline for the functioning of the committee and the MPs’ votes, and also the end of the current parity of 12 members of each House, with the adoption of proportionality of three deputies per senator, like the Joint Budget Committee.

To change the processing time, it will be necessary to present a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC). As for the proportional composition of the committees, it would be enough to issue a resolution by Congress to change the article of the Common Rules of Procedure of the two Houses that deals with the issue. Today, the Senate and the House have an equal number of members, with 12 each.

“I accept the considerations with the same openness to dialogue, but with the commitment to proceed only within what the Constitution says”, said Pacheco.

During an afternoon press conference, shortly before starting the day’s session, Pacheco said he took Lira’s demands as being suggestions by the Chamber for improvement and that he will take them to the meeting of Senate leaders, scheduled for 9 am on Thursday. (30), if you can’t bring it forward to Wednesday (29).

But the president of Sendo has already said that there is consensus only on the issue of deadlines. “Proportionality exists so that the Chamber and the Senate have an equal footing in the commissions. The exception of the CMO is due to the role that each parliamentarian has in the Budget”, he explained.

Pacheco also met at the end of the afternoon with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to address the issue and the voting agenda of interest to the government in the coming weeks.

Lira wants to zero soon measures edited by Bolsonaro

While there is no definition on the committees for this year’s MPs, Lira this week started the so-called concentrated effort to vote on the 13 provisional measures (MPs) issued by the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at the end of 2022, which will begin to expire in the coming days.

In agreement with the leaders of the benches on Monday (27), Lira decided to let at least three MPs from the complete list expire, ranging from number 1141 to 1153. The processing of matters still follows the exceptional rite established for the pandemic period , without prior analysis by joint committees of deputies and senators.

The MPs chosen to be left out of the polls were those that deal with hiring staff for a fixed period of time for the Census (MP 1141), the one that established the minimum wage of R$ 1,302.00 (MP 1143) and the one that releases credit of R$ 7.5 billion for the extinct Ministry of Labor and Social Security to pay social security benefits at the end of the year (MP 1144), since they achieved their objectives. In the case of the new minimum wage, the current government has already set a value that will come into force in May, raised to R$ 1,320.00.

Both Pacheco and Lira hope to zero the voting of Bolsonaro’s MPs by the end of next week. The House must approve eight this week, let two expire and approve another three next week. The set must be appreciated soon after by the Senate, also in an accelerated way.