Minister of Cities, Jader Filho (photo), will come to the Senate together with the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, to justify Lula’s decrees that changed the sanitation framework.| Photo: Edilson Rodrigues/Agência Senado

Ministers Jader Filho (Cities) and Rui Costa (Casa Civil) confirmed their participation in a public hearing in the Senate, scheduled for the morning of next Tuesday (13). The objective of the joint meeting of the Environment (CMA), Infrastructure (CI) and Regional Development (CDR) commissions is to discuss the two decrees of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) that relax the new basic sanitation framework in favor of state concessionaires.

The hearing will serve to instruct the Draft Legislative Decree (PDL) 98/2023, which has already been approved by the Chamber and which is being analyzed by the senators, initially at the CI. The PDL aims to revoke the most controversial parts of these Lula decrees (11,466 and 11,467) issued in April. Requests for the hearing were made by Senators Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB) and Rogério Marinho (PL-RN). The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 am and will be held in room 3 of the Alexandre Costa ward.

The government has already commented on the decrees on the grounds that they were necessary to prevent 1,113 municipalities in the North and Northeast regions from being prevented from receiving federal funds for sanitation works as of April this year. The legislative decree under analysis in Congress suspends the articles issued by the government that allow current water and sewage service providers to participate in bidding processes even without meeting the requirements of the new framework. Billionaire investments have already been contracted, aiming at universal sanitation by 2030.