Senate suspends analysis of government decrees on the Sanitation Framework

After a series of negotiations and in view of the imminent publication in the Official Gazette of a new decree contemplating, in part, the complaints of parliamentarians, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), decided to remove from the agenda of this Tuesday’s votes (12) the Draft Legislative Decree (PDL) that would overturn sections of two decrees edited in April by the government that changed important items of the Sanitation Framework.

The new decree removes the possibility of direct provision of the service by state companies, among other concessions to public agents.

Last Thursday (6), the Minister of Cities, Jader Filho, was in the Senate to negotiate the withdrawal of the PDL agenda with Pacheco and the leader of the government in the house, Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA).

Opposition senators argue that the government has invaded the powers of Congress and that the issue should have been dealt with in a bill. The discussion is now about a way to exclude the most controversial points without overturning the decrees completely.

The decrees signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) expand the possibility of private investment in basic sanitation projects, against the previous one signed in 2021 by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), which restricted 25% of the undertaking.

The suspension of decrees, says the government, could harm 1,100 municipalities, which would be unable to access federal funds for the sanitation sector. The previous decree established that cities should prove their economic and financial capacity to meet universalization targets by March 31 of this year.