Lula unlocks amendments inherited from Bolsonaro and targets strongholds of ministers

Brasilia DF) – The Lula government (PT) began to unlock the funds it inherited from the extinct rapporteur’s amendments. The first release favored states of ministers. For the time being, around R$ 200 million have been authorized, which mainly serve Mato Grosso, electoral domicile of Carlos Fávaro (Agriculture), and Pará, of Jader Filho (Cities).

The start, therefore, directs funds to the bases of ministers at a time when Congress is demanding greater speed from the Planalto Palace in releasing amendments.

Fávaro is a senator elected by the PSD, but took leave to occupy the portfolio. Jader Filho, in turn, was appointed to the ministry by the Chamber’s MDB bench.

As shown to Sheet in April, the Planalto Palace decided that the new way of directing money for congressmen to irrigate works and projects in their electoral bases will simulate parliamentary amendments.

The lack of prospects for the government to respond to requests from parliamentarians regarding this budget is one of the main complaints of Congress regarding Lula’s political articulation.

Of approximately R$ 140 million pledged (step that precedes the payment) by Agriculture, R$ 130 million were allocated to seven municipalities in Mato Grosso. This amount will be used to repair roads in rural areas and purchase equipment.

Fávaro, when he was a senator, had already assigned amendments to these cities. In addition, mayors of these municipalities are part of the minister’s political group, which is quoted to run for the Government of Mato Grosso in 2026.

In the case of the Ministry of Cities, all the R$50 million sent so far have been used by the federal government to sign an agreement with the City Hall of Belém for the construction of an urban park, announced during Lula’s visit to the capital of Pará. In addition to the petista, Jader Filho and his brother, Helder Barbalho (MDB), governor of Pará, participated in the event.

Rapporteur amendments were the main bargaining chip in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and were declared unconstitutional by the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

The slice inherited by Lula adds up to R$9.9 billion. The power to indicate the destination of these resources is coveted by parliamentarians, who, in exchange for supporting Lula’s projects in Congress, want to send more money to finance works and projects in their electoral strongholds.

Not sure how the amount will be distributed, centrão leaders are pressing the government to change the political articulation and respond to more requests from parliamentarians.

During the election campaign, Lula even called the rapporteur’s amendments the “biggest corruption scheme of our times”, “secret budget” and “bolsolão”. The PT administration, however, circumvented the Supreme Court’s decision and negotiated the sharing of this resource based on agreements made with the National Congress to expand its support base.

The government put a specific stamp on these funds, in order to formalize and organize the payments. That money was divided among seven ministries in a political agreement involving the summits of the Chamber and the Senate and was endorsed by Lula. In this way, Congress maintained influence over a billionaire portion of the Budget.

The Ministry of Agriculture determined, in an ordinance published in June, that the actions that use this slice of the budget must prioritize social impact, regional development, technological innovation, among other points.

In a note, the folder commanded by Fávaro said that it had registered more than 8,000 proposals for agreements and that it intends, in the coming weeks, to commit all the amount available in the budget for this type of action.

The ministry said that there is no identification of the author of the proposals, as the funds are in the federal government’s cash register.

The folder stated that it prioritizes the recovery of roads to improve the flow of production, the acquisition of agricultural machinery and implements, in addition to supporting agricultural events with this amount.

The Ministry of Cities, on the other hand, presented, in an ordinance released in May, criteria that must be observed to release this type of amendment. The document states that priority should be given to actions in municipalities with low socioeconomic indicators.

Questioned about what criteria were used to release the funds to the state of Jader Filho, the ministry said that the contract signed with the City Hall of Belém in the Parque do Igarapé São Joaquim is part of a set of investments, still being defined, and that will compose support from the federal government to bring improvements to the municipality, preparing it to host the COP-30 in November 2025.

The Ministry of Health has the largest share (R$ 3 billion) of the remaining resource of the declared unconstitutional budget. In early May, the folder published an ordinance in which it defined a series of priorities for the release of this resource.

Health technicians claim that this ordinance was edited to try not to loosen control over the budget.

Members of Congress, however, believe that these rules have become barriers to the release of the resource. So far, Saúde has not begun to pledge the figure inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments.

The pace of release of the resource increased pressure from centrão parties to change the command of Health.

The Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, said this Monday (19) that Lula made it clear that the portfolio commanded by Nísia Trindade is not in the “party quota of any party”.

Padilha also said that the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), did not ask for the portfolio command. Lira is the main leader of the center and has made public statements criticizing Lula’s political articulation.

The Ministry of Sports also defined criteria for releasing the R$ 200 million reserved for the budget that changed its nomenclature after the decision of the STF.

The value is small compared to what is available for Health, but it represents almost half of the discretionary amount (which is not used to pay salaries and other obligations) of the portfolio commanded by Minister Ana Moser.

In addition to the resource inherited from the rapporteur’s old amendments, there are other funds indicated by parliamentarians.

The 2023 Budget reserves BRL 36.5 billion in individual amendments, by state benches and by the thematic committees of the National Congress. BRL 6.6 billion were committed and BRL 2.4 billion of that amount was paid.

The government has given more pace to individual amendments, which are those that every deputy and senator is entitled to. On Friday (16), another batch of R$ 1 billion of these resources was released. With that, last week, the value added up to almost R$ 1.4 billion.

The most privileged were former senators and former deputies, such as former leader of the government Jair Bolsonaro in the Senate, Fernando Bezerra Coelho (MDB-PE) and former deputy Marcelo Ramos (PSD-AM), who is an ally of Lula and won the position of special advisor to Petrobras.

Regarding the parties served, MDB, PL, PT and União Brasil received the most.

*With information from Folha

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