Lira sees inconsistency about MPs and asks for Congress session – 03/24/2023 – Power

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), sent this Friday (24) a letter to the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), asking that a session of the National Congress be convened to decide on the impasse of MPs (provisional measures).

In the craft, to which the Sheet had access, Lira stated that there was a lack of coherence on Pacheco’s part in defining that the MPs edited by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) be analyzed directly by the plenary of the Chamber, while those published by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will be put to a vote in joint committees —as was the case before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In effect, if the foundation of Your Excellency’s Act is [o] closure of ESPIN [Emergência em Saúde Pública de Importância Nacional] and public calamity, it is not coherent to apply different regimes to provisional measures after May 22nd. That is to say: the transition of governments is not a time frame consistent with the foundations of the decision”, wrote Lira.

Senators argue that joint committees are provided for in the Constitution and point to Lira’s arbitrariness in resisting the reinstallation of collegiate bodies.

The president of the Chamber said that Pacheco’s decision to resume the joint commissions in an act signed only by the president of the Senate, without the consent of the deputies, caused “a kind of thing”.

“From the constitutional point of view, this procedure hampered the regimental right of federal deputies and deputies to contradict the matter of order and appeal against Your Excellency’s decision”, he stated.

Lira’s argument is that the act that determined that the joint commissions would not be installed during the pandemic was jointly signed by the Board of Directors of the Chamber and Senate.

The document also established that the different processing of the MPs would take place while the Ministry of Health’s ordinance that recognized the health emergency resulting from Covid was in force.

For the president of the Chamber, it makes no sense to define that the provisional measures of Lula and Bolsonaro have different procedures, since the Ministry of Health revoked the health emergency in May 2022.

“It doesn’t seem justifiable, a year later [do fim da emergência em saúde]that the regime for processing provisional measures in force be unilaterally and monocratically changed based on such arguments.”

To resolve the impasse, Lira proposed to Pacheco that a session of Congress be convened so that “the matter is formally and duly raised and decided”.

Lira’s allies heard by Sheet state that, in the session of Congress, there are a variety of alternatives that can be discussed. The main one —they say— is the composition of the joint commissions.

Currently they are formed by 12 deputies and 12 senators defined by the leaders themselves. Lira has already stated that she considers this mechanism to be undemocratic because the Chamber would be underrepresented. The solution proposed by Lira, however, has already been discarded by Senate leaders.

Interlocutors of the President of the Chamber rely on the argument that, despite the fact that joint committees are provided for in the Constitution, the constitutional text does not specify their composition — a definition that was given in a Congressional resolution in 2002.

If Pacheco does not call the session, Lira’s interlocutors say that the mayor may ask for the other provisional measures presented (not just those of the Bolsonaro government) to be sent directly to the plenary of the Chamber. Faced with a second negative, Lira is also considering returning the MPs from Bolsonaro’s times.

The crisis between the two presidents caused by this stalemate of the MPs reached its peak on Thursday (23), when Pacheco determined the return of the joint commissions.

Pacheco accepted a question of order proposed by Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), Lira’s disaffection, who demanded a definitive position from the President of the Senate in the face of weeks without definitions.

In response, Lira threatened to boycott the decision, which he classified as “draconian”, stating that this issue will not go “a millimeter” in the Chamber. In addition, he also questioned Pacheco’s leadership at the head of the Senate.

In an attempt to soften Lira’s statements given earlier, the mayor’s office released a note signaling an attempt at dialogue with the Senate. According to reports, Lira himself would have taken the initiative to draw up the text.

Provisional measures are edited by the President of the Republic and come into effect immediately, but depend on congressional approval in order not to lose validity. Thus, the House and Senate have up to 120 days to approve or reverse the government’s initiative.

The Constitution provides that the processing of MPs begins in a mixed commission, formed by deputies and senators. During the pandemic, however, a joint act of Congress decided that collegiate bodies would not be formed, to speed up voting and avoid crowds.

After two years with the differentiated procedure, Lira and leaders of the Chamber say that the absence of the joint committees facilitated the work of analyzing provisional measures.

Senate leaders, however, criticize that the House has been harmed by the format and that, with the delay for the House to approve the MPs, senators have little time to analyze the texts and promote changes.