Lula releases R$ 1 billion in amendment and prioritizes allies and centrão – 05/25/2023 – Power

The Lula government (PT) released around R$ 1.1 billion in parliamentary amendments on Tuesday (23), the same day that the Chamber of Deputies voted on the basic text of the new fiscal framework.

The new batch of funds for amendments prioritized deputies allied with the government and members of the centrão, a group of parties led by the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

R$ 800 million were authorized for deputies and R$ 288 million for senators.

The plan to release another batch of amendments, in the order of R$ 1 billion, in the midst of discussions on the project of the new fiscal framework in the National Congress was brought forward by the Sheet last week.

The package brings together individual amendments –those to which all deputies and senators are entitled– provided for in this year’s Budget. The parties that received the most amendments were PT, PSD, MDB, União Brasil, PP and Republicans.

The funds were released by the Ministry of Health and are essentially intended for primary care and hospital care. Transfers by the health portfolio are faster than those of other ministries because they are made directly to municipalities.

The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved the basic text of the new fiscal framework by 372 votes to 108.

The scoreboard showed a wide gap in relation to the minimum of 257 votes that the government needed to gather for the approval of a complementary bill.

In political articulation, the government has been asked to release the budget for amendments in the face of political mishaps in Congress, such as the vote at the beginning of the month in the Chamber to overthrow decrees that change rules of the Sanitation Framework.

Olival Marques (MDB-PA), Marreca Filho (Patriota-MA), Juarez Costa (MDB-MT) and Otto Alencar Filho (PSD-BA) are on the list of deputies who received the most amendments in the batch released on Tuesday. The transfers authorized on their behalf varied between R$ 12.4 million and R$ 16 million.

In addition to them, former federal deputy Paulinho da Força (SP), vice-president of Solidariedade, received around R$ 14 million. Paulinho’s amendment was presented last year – when he was still a parliamentarian. The entire Solidarity group voted in favor of the framework.

The distribution of amendments in the Chamber has privileged government allies and deputies close to Lira.

Considering the resources released since the beginning of the year, deputies Aluisio Mendes (Republicanos-MA) and the leader of the same party in the Chamber, Hugo Motta (PB), are on the list of most contemplated.

When contacted, the aforementioned deputies did not answer whether they voted in favor of the fiscal framework because of the release of funds.

From January until now, the government released R$ 2.5 billion in individual amendments. Despite being mandatory, the Planalto Palace manages to have some room for maneuver to postpone transfers to members of the opposition.

Allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), such as Captain Augusto (PL-SP) and Bibo Nunes (PL-RS), are among those who received the least amount of amendments – R$200,000 and R$332,000, respectively.

The 2023 Budget reserves BRL 21.2 billion for indications of individual amendments, made by deputies and senators.

Each deputy indicated around BRL 32 million in individual amendments in 2023. The senators’ quota is BRL 59 million.

Part of Congress and members of the government consider that the effort to release the amendments is still insufficient.

Government members say that it is normal to start distributing the amendment values ​​from May onwards. This is because there are deadlines for submission and analysis of proposals.

In general, transfers of resources from the federal government to state and municipal health funds are released earlier. Other endeavors tend to take longer, such as buying tractors or paving roads, which may require bidding and measurement.