Pacheco nods to resolve impasse with Lira over MPs – 03/03/2023 – Politics

The President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), has been seeking an agreement to resolve the impasse surrounding the joint committees that analyze provisional measures and, thus, overcome the resistance of the President of the Chamber, Deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL) .

Initially, the decision of the Board of Directors of the Senate that provided for the return of the joint committees was retroactive to January 1st.

As a result, the main provisional measures sent by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), such as the casting vote by Carf (Administrative Council for Financial Resources) and the return of Coaf to the Ministry of Finance, would need to undergo analysis of collegiate bodies formed by deputies and senators.

The measure, however, displeased Lira, who wanted to maintain the previous rite in order to be able to concentrate the bulk of the discussion of the texts in the Chamber, as has been happening since the Covid-19 pandemic. House party leaders also defended maintaining the previous model, creating an impasse with the Senate.

To get around the problem, Pacheco proposed making the resumption of joint committees more flexible, so that the new rule is not retroactive to January. “President Pacheco authorized us to work with [a data] from the 1st of March”, said the leader of the government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP).

Other senators, however, say that the measure could only take effect after the publication of the act, still without a date. Despite the nod, there is still no decision in the Chamber on the return of the commissions.

Senators protested against Lira’s delay during the first meeting of leaders, on Tuesday (28), and stressed that the formation of commissions is a constitutional obligation.

According to reports from parliamentarians, Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) and Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) —Lira’s political rival— stated that the President of the Senate, as he is also President of Congress, would not need to wait for a decision by the Chamber.

According to people who were present, Braga and Calheiros said they would talk about the matter during the plenary session, but Pacheco pondered that he was in contact with the Chamber to seek a negotiated exit.

Calheiros says he will insist on the matter of order. “The president of the Chamber does not want to solve it because that excludes the Senate from the appreciation of the provisional measures. This is absurd from the point of view of bicameralism. It is unconstitutional”, he says.

The Senate president has argued that the scheme found during the pandemic was decided by the House, and that it would be good form to resume the joint committees also jointly.

The rite is the subject of a complaint by the Senate because since the pandemic, provisional measures have been voted directly in the plenary of both Houses, starting with the Chamber. As the federal deputies do not have a deadline to discuss the text, the senators say that they have become mere “stampers” of what has already been negotiated and decided by them.

With the postponement of the return of the joint commissions, the seven provisional measures edited by Lula in the first days of government, in addition to the MP on fuels, would still be under Lira’s umbrella. In the current model, it controls the pace of processing and the appointment of rapporteurs.

According to parliamentarians, the government would also not be interested in forming joint committees to vote on the provisional measures at the beginning of the year because the deadline may be tight. In addition, the act of the Senate’s board of directors opened a period of six more days for the suggestion of changes in the collegiate bodies – which increased the gap for texts proposed by the Planalto to be modified.

One of the main apprehensions of the government is with the MP that establishes the casting vote in Carf, the administrative court that judges tax disputes between taxpayers and the Federal Revenue Service.

Another concern is with the provisional measure that created and reorganized the ministries. To try to keep the text, Lula’s allies have defended that the president should have the right to define the structure of the Esplanada dos Ministérios without interference from Congress.

Lira did not hide her irritation with the Senate’s decision. Asked about the subject during the Chamber session on February 8, the deputy stated that the two Houses would still meet to define “if” and “when” the change would occur.

“The Board of Directors of the Chamber and the Board of Directors of the Senate will meet and decide together if and when there will be a change in the sponsorship of the form of voting on provisional measures. of the National Congress”, he said.

Provisional measures are edited by the President of the Republic and come into effect immediately, but depend on congressional approval in order not to lose validity. Thus, the House and Senate have up to 60 days, extendable for an equal period, to validate or reverse the government’s initiative.