Lula extends Padilha’s power in releasing amendments – 08/03/2023 – Politics

Responsible for the political articulation of the government, Minister Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations) gained more power to negotiate parliamentary amendments with Congress.

In a formal act, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) concentrated on Padilha’s portfolio the definition of the execution schedule of part of the amendments.

Deputies and senators will need the minister’s endorsement so that the indications of where to apply the money from these amendments reach the portfolio responsible for the project or work.

This rule was established in an interministerial ordinance, published in the Official Gazette of last Friday (3).

Before, in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), it was the Congress that had the autonomy to communicate each ministry about the priorities of bench amendments (defined by deputies and senators from the same state) and commission (chosen by the collegiate members of Congress).

From the publication of the new ordinance, the authors of these types of amendment will have to forward the information to the Institutional Relations Secretariat, which will make the bridge with the other ministries.

Padilha’s department will also be responsible for reallocating resources in case the original project presents technical problems during execution.

With that, the resource release flow will be centralized in the Planalto Palace. This takes away from the other ministers –whether from the PT or from the centrão– the ability to negotiate directly with Congress.

According to assistants, the objective is to guarantee control, even if relative, over these amendments. The pace of disbursement of these resources can be used in the articulation for projects of interest to Lula in Congress.

Despite having the pen to release these amendments, Padilha will not have complete autonomy. If he does not respond to requests from influential lawmakers, he will risk losing crucial votes for the Planalto Palace.

The ordinance does not apply to commitments inherited from the Bolsonaro government, which are called remainders payable — money to be paid when the work or project is completed. There are more than R$ 20 billion in amendments that have not yet been fully implemented.

However, Padilha is accredited to negotiate with the mayors of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), the payment schedule in line with the approval of government projects in Congress.

Until the publication of this ordinance, articulation was scattered, including among government leaders in the legislative houses, in addition to other ministers and party presidents.

Members of Congress complained about the lack of harmony between Lula’s assistants and the absence of a guarantor of the political commitments signed.

In addition to Padilha himself, two other ministers signed the ordinance, written with the aim of organizing the articulation structure with Congress. They are: Simone Tebet (Planning) and Esther Dweck (Management).

Although he holds the key to the safe, Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance) is not one of the signatories. A Sheet found that the ordinance was drawn up at a time when technicians from the economic team were planning to release block resources to different ministries.

This was the method adopted in the first PT governments, when the Ministry of Finance authorized funds for portfolios, whose holders had autonomy to distribute the money between public machine expenditures and also attend to parliamentary requests under the supervision of the Civil House or the Secretariat of Relations. Institutional.

This changed in the Bolsonaro government. Empowered, Congress negotiated internally –between leaders and parliamentarians allied with the Planalto– how the budget for the amendments would be divided. The agreement was then communicated to the ministers responsible for executing the projects.

With the ordinance, Lula is trying to regain that power, at least partially.

When dealing with the rules for commission amendments, which were created during the Bolsonaro administration, the ordinance determines that Padilha’s portfolio “will forward a list of beneficiaries and the order of priority” to the bodies in charge of implementing the amendments.

These commission amendments rose from BRL 329 million last year to BRL 7.6 billion in Lula’s first Budget — this was a movement orchestrated by Congress itself.

In the case of bench amendments, which add up to R$ 7.7 billion this year, it will be Padilha who will also forward the parliamentarians’ nominations to the different bodies of the Esplanada.

Bench amendments are mandatory.

“The nomination of beneficiaries must be dealt with by the coordinators of the state caucuses through a letter sent to the Secretariat for Institutional Relations of the Presidency of the Republic, it being incumbent upon the said Secretariat to send the nomination to the respective bodies”, says another part of the ordinance.

In previous governments, the minister responsible for political articulation did not have this kind of power.

In the assessment of government members, the power granted to Padilha is partial, not least because it does not include individual amendments (which every deputy and senator is entitled to). It is up to each parliamentarian to indicate where the money will be applied.

The rules of the ordinance also do not deal with the budget of ministries that Lula gave up to meet requests from Congress.

In negotiation with the leadership of the Chamber and the Senate, the president accepted that half of the money from the extinct rapporteur’s amendments (about R$ 9.8 billion) be transferred to the ministries’ coffers; but, in a political agreement, these resources will also be used based on the indications of parliamentarians — a subterfuge for Congress not to lose power over this slice of the Budget after a decision by the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

Negotiations for this sum of R$ 9.8 billion will follow political criteria, but still under the leadership of Padilha.