Pacheco is on the agenda for the fourth project that overturns Lula’s tampering with the Sanitation Framework

The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), put on the voting agenda of this Wednesday’s plenary session (5) the draft legislative decree (PDL) that overturns part of the decrees edited on April 5 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Silva (PT) with the aim of making the rules of the new Basic Sanitation Framework more flexible, in favor of state-owned companies in the sector.

The prospect is for the approval of PDL 98/2023, proposed and approved on May 3 by the Chamber, with ease. The government’s measure displeased political and economic circles, as it created legal uncertainty in contracts and put tens of billions of reais in announced investments at risk.

The overthrow of Lula’s decrees initially by the Chamber represented the government’s first major defeat in the House, by a score of 295 votes to 136 against. This movement was articulated by allies of the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and by the opposition.

Forwarded to the Senate, the text was processed by the Infrastructure Commission (CI), chaired by Confúcio Moura (MDB-RO), who was also its rapporteur. In the meantime, Planalto organizers tried to promote an intermediate solution, such as the enactment of a bill, to avoid the wear and tear of another imminent defeat.

Still in the Chamber, Lira even negotiated the removal of the decrees from the agenda, but was unable to get Lula to retreat. In the Senate, ministers participated in public hearings in an attempt to justify the gestures that, according to the senators, ran over the Legislature.

The reaction to the texts proposed by the Civil House and endorsed by Lula, under the argument of contemplating less populous municipalities, especially those in the North and Northeast regions, was basically due to the assessment that the decrees disrespected the text of the framework in force since 2020 and for the explicit help given to public sanitation companies that had already demonstrated inefficiency in carrying out projects for the universalization of services.

With the approval of the PDL in the Senate, the plan of the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT), former governor of Bahia, who intended to use the presidential decrees to regularize the provision of services in Salvador, is frustrated.

The adverse environment encountered by President Lula’s third government in the Chamber, with projects contrary to his interest being discussed and voted on in record time, does not extend to the Senate, where these controversial texts are blocked, either shelved or with slower processing. smooth over disputed points.