the President of the Chamber’s habit of trampling on the rules

“TratoLira” is a nickname that is on the lips of advisors from the Chamber of Deputies and is not used to refer to the President of the House’s quick way of commanding the deliberative sessions. Arthur Lira (PP-AL) is seen internally as a “tractor” due to his authoritarianism at the head of the plenary. Lira impresses parliament with strategies to speed up the approval of agendas of interest to him, even if he needs to make questionable interpretations of the regulations or even ignore provisions of the document.

The Chamber of Deputies, which is the stage for important decisions for the country, has approved relevant projects at the drop of a hat during the management of “TratoLira”. In addition to being quick to release agendas at short notice, making it difficult for parliamentarians to analyze proposals, proposals are processed without going through the planned legislative process.

Lately, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution (PECs) have been approved without even going through analysis by the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), which has the function of evaluating the constitutionality of a proposal before forwarding it for processing in the House. After being admitted, the PECs must go to a special committee, before voting in the plenary, in which parliamentarians can present amendments to the base text.

Among Lira’s regimental maneuvers, the president is used to adding PECs that have just been presented to others that are advanced in the processing, in order to save time. This is what happened with the PEC of Furo do Teto (PEC 32/2022) which, upon arriving at the House, was already attached to PEC 24/2019 and went straight to the plenary, without going through the CCJ or special commission. A relevant proposition, with a major budgetary impact.

Another problem is the convening of deliberative sessions without informing the agenda that will be discussed. It is increasingly common for agendas to be announced during the session that has already started, just an hour or two before voting begins. The Rules provide for a monthly agenda, precisely to provide predictability about what will be voted on, which has not happened for years. However, parliament was used to having the agenda defined on the Monday before the deliberative session, which has also no longer been seen. This way, parliamentarians and advisors do not know what will be voted on that day.

If they cannot know what will be voted on, they will not be able to calmly analyze the opinions of each proposal, a scenario that makes it difficult to present amendments or highlights to improve the text or even for deputies to organize themselves to obstruct some matter. This has been a recurring complaint. As happened with the bill that regulates sports betting: the 32-page opinion was approved approximately 24 hours after it was presented.

In groups of advisors on WhatsApp, Lira’s stickers related to the president’s stance are popular. Among the jokes, the advisors responsible for the plenary use acronyms such as “RIL”, which stands for “Lira’s Internal Regulations” and “SLS” for “only Lira knows”.

In campaigning for the presidency, Lira promised to value the regiment

Anyone who sees President Arthur Lira’s current performance will not believe that he is the same deputy who gave a warm speech at the inauguration of his first term, in 2021. Lira used the expression “the Chamber of I” as an allegory to describe the excess of concentration of power in the hands of the President of the House. “This is not bad just because it distorts the principle of collectivity and collegiality of a legislative House. It’s bad, especially in times of crisis, because it sends a signal of lack of predictability for the country, for the markets, for society and for the world”, he added. The president also spoke about the “neutrality of the rules” and “valuing the rites”, a theme used throughout the campaign for the presidency.

The inconsistency does not go unnoticed by deputies such as Marcel Van Hattem (Novo-RS), one of the names that has most fought the lightness of “TratoLira”. “We are, President, in an extraordinary session that began at 1:56 pm, with the agenda announced only at 6:20 pm. And as far as I know, to date, we still do not have a published report on the matter that should be considered tonight”, he spoke in plenary on May 23rd. Van Hattem was referring to the opinion on the fiscal framework project that would be voted on that day.

The parliamentarian concluded by saying that this way of working makes it difficult for deputies to dedicate themselves to understanding the issues. “It is therefore impossible for parliamentarians to study the matter, in order to build the best solutions for the country, without knowing when there will be a session, what the agenda is expected, what emergencies will be on the table”, said Van Hattem. The president responded by saying that the agenda is defined with the leaders of the House and held them responsible for the problems.

Deputies also complain about sudden changes to sessions that, sometimes, were scheduled to be held remotely and suddenly become in-person. Therefore, the parliamentarian needs to cancel agendas in the state and buy tickets suddenly, further burdening public coffers.

The movement of trampling is not new, but it is gaining strength

It is already clear that the president of the Chamber has a lot of power in his hands. Just remember Eduardo Cunha who, when he was in office, opened the process (and made a point of seeing it through to the end) of impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT). The regulations provided for several instruments that help the President of the House to obtain the attention of deputies for proposals of interest to them, with effects including on the remuneration of parliamentarians. In roll call votes, anyone who does not vote on the matters defined by the president will have discounts on their payrolls – which reach 5 thousand reais – if they do not present a justification to the Board of Directors.

For years, the regiment has been run over – and increasingly run over. As it is a large House with 513 parliamentarians, unlike the Federal Senate which has only 81, the rules need to be clear to avoid confusion. Since Eduardo Cunha, questionable interpretations have been gaining ground, becoming even stronger during Rodrigo Maia’s administration – the longest in history, with four and a half years, for managing to disregard his buffer mandate. Despite campaign promises, Lira further opened the margins for decisions with dubious regimental justifications. In this sense, it is not possible to know where this will lead the Legislative Branch.

A People’s Gazette contacted the advisors of the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, to hear Lira’s arguments about the advisors’ complaints, but until the publication of this article, she had not received any answers.