Turbine Congress amends and can control R$50 billion in 2024 – 12/07/2023 – Power

An article included in the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) of 2024 stamps R$11.3 billion for commission amendments and expands the power of the National Congress over next year’s Budget.

The text was accepted by the LDO rapporteur, deputy Danilo Forte (União Brasil-CE), in an agreement between members of the Chamber and Senate leadership to establish a new model for distributing amendments from next year onwards.

The measure still needs to be voted on by parliamentarians. Once approved, it could increase the total amount of amendments to a record value, close to R$50 billion.

Today, the 2024 budget proposal already includes a reserve of R$37.6 billion for individual and bench amendments, which are mandatory by the Federal Constitution.

Amendments are a way for deputies and senators to send money for works and projects in their electoral bases and, in doing so, increase political capital.

There are three types: individual ones (which every deputy and senator are entitled to), bench ones (parliamentarians from each state define priorities for the region) and commission ones (defined by members of Congress bodies).

Forte’s opinion says that the Budget must reserve at least 0.9% of the RCL (net current revenue) for 2022 for programs indicated by permanent congressional committees. Two-thirds of the amount will be designated by the committees of the Chamber of Deputies, and the remainder by the Senate committees.

Furthermore, the rapporteur predicted that, in the event of revenue frustration, committee amendments can only be blocked in the same proportion as the cut applied to non-mandatory expenses of the Executive Branch.

Commission amendments are not binding like individual or state bench nominations. Stamping a minimum value in the LDO and limiting the contingency for these resources is a way of protecting them against cuts or reallocations. In practice, it is shielding.

Technicians interviewed by Sheet recall that the imposition of individual and bench amendments, guaranteed by different constitutional amendments approved from 2015 onwards, originated from a similar device included in the 2014 LDO.

Today, the Constitution reserves 2% of the RCL for individual amendments and 1% for state bench amendments.

The idea, according to Congress leaders, is that the committee amendments fill the place left by the extinct rapporteur’s amendments, the main bargaining chip in political negotiations between the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and parliamentarians.

The rapporteur’s amendments were extinguished by the STF (Supreme Federal Court), which declared them unconstitutional about a year ago.

By boosting committee amendments, members of the House and Senate leadership now have power over this billion-dollar budget and can divide the amount based on political criteria.

Political organizers at Palácio do Planalto fear that this new model will create a lack of control and internal splits in Congress, as competition for command positions in committees tends to increase.

This is another factor that strengthens the leadership of the two Houses, as the agreement to divide commissions between the parties is made by the presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).

The plan of Congress leaders is that committee amendments will not be shared equally between each panel. According to people involved in the negotiations heard by the Sheetcommissions such as infrastructure, health and education will receive larger shares than others.

Congress even discussed a new type of amendment (leadership amendments), but ended up opting to boost commission amendments, which have already existed since the Bolsonaro government. However, until 2022, these amendments were less than R$1 billion per year.

Since 2023, with the end of rapporteur amendments, parliamentarians have begun to expand the use of committee amendments.

According to the text of the LDO, indications of commission amendments in 2024 will begin five days after the publication of the Budget, through a letter sent directly to the ministries, bodies and units responsible for executing the expenses.

After the nomination, the ministries will have up to 90 days to publicize the programs and actions covered, as well as inform the authors of the need for technical adjustments. At the end of this period, the government will have another 30 days to commit the expense — commitment is the first phase of spending, in which the government commits to contracting the good or service.

In the case of automatic and regular transfers to be made by the Union to states and municipalities, the text also obliges the government to “make full payment by June 30, 2024”.

Understand parliamentary amendments and their use

What are amendments?
Amendment is the way that deputies and senators can send money for works and projects in their electoral bases and, with this, increase political capital

What are the types of amendments?
Today there are three types: individual (which every deputy and senator has the right to), bench type (parliamentarians from each state define priorities for the region) and commission type (defined by members of Congress’ bodies)

See the chronology of parliamentary amendments

Before 2015

• The execution of parliamentary amendments was a political decision by the government, which could ignore the allocation presented by congressmen.

2015

• Constitutional amendment 86/2015 established the mandatory execution of individual amendments, the so-called imposing budget, with some rules.

2019

• Congress expanded the tax budget by approving constitutional amendment 100, which also made amendments from state benches mandatory

• Congress allocated a significant amount for the amendments made by the general budget rapporteur, R$30 billion for the following year

• Jair Bolsonaro vetoed the measure and Congress only failed to overturn the veto through an agreement that kept R$20 billion in the hands of the general rapporteur

• Bolsonaro also gave complete autonomy to the Congress leadership to decide where all this amount would be allocated.

2020

• With the 2019 agreement, made by Bolsonaro to maintain a base of support in Congress, the amount allocated to the amendments jumped and reached R$44 billion.

2022

• The STF (Supreme Federal Court) declared the rapporteur’s amendment unconstitutional. The amount was renamed and transferred to the ministries’ budget, but the Lula government circumvented the decision and maintained the political use of the resources — there will be, in 2023, R$9.8 billion reserved for this type of negotiation

2023

• Each deputy had R$32 million in individual amendments (senators, R$59 million), amounts that are mandatory and in some cases can more than double as a result of bench amendments and “extra amendments”