Rapporteur wants to include app drivers and review state of emergency in PEC

The rapporteur of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that authorizes billions for truck drivers, taxi drivers and Aid in an election year is studying including app drivers and reviewing the state of emergency in his opinion on the text.

The expectation is that the report by deputy Danilo Forte (União-CE) will be voted on on Wednesday (6) in the special commission of the Chamber of Deputies. If approved, the PEC would be taken to the plenary, where it needs the minimum support of 308 parliamentarians in a two-round vote.

The amendments studied by Forte may delay the enactment of the PEC and go against the Chamber’s initial intention to speed up the processing of the text. On Friday (1st), the text was attached to the biofuels PEC, which had already had its admissibility approved by the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) and which is being processed by the special commission.

According to the government leader in the Chamber, Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), the objective was for the two texts to be voted on without changes in relation to what was approved in the Senate, which would prevent them from returning to the neighboring House.

This Monday (4), Danilo Forte sent a statement in which he indicated that he would take suggestions regarding the PEC to the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and to party leaders. He specifically cited the “possibility of extending assistance to app drivers, as well as the need to maintain, or not, the installation of the state of emergency in the country in the text”.

“In relation to the state of emergency, I argue that the Spending Ceiling Law itself already authorizes the increase in expenses in cases of financial crisis or calamity – exactly what we have experienced in Brazil since the pandemic and with the Ukraine War”, he wrote. .

In the communiqué, Danilo Forte emphasizes that changes depend on a consensus and, later, would be submitted to the special commission.

According to legislative technicians, the inclusion of application drivers would change the merits of the proposal, which would force the text to return to the Senate. In the same way, the PEC is anchored in the concept of the “state of emergency”. Removing the expression would be a change of merit with an impact on the remaining text.

That is, to enact the PEC with the speed that the Chamber wants, the rapporteur would have to leave the text unchanged in relation to what came from the Senate or with wording amendments that did not change the merits.

This Monday, the president of the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities), Paulo Ziulkoski, criticized the PEC. “They are now creating a PEC, which they are calling the election or the PEC of hell or whatever name they want to give it, to create R$40 billion there to raise the aid of the Auxílio Brasil program to R$600, more for truck drivers, and Will they say I’m against it?”, he asked.

“It’s just that you have to have the money to pay it. So how long will it last? Until December? And what about from January onwards, who pays this bill, where will this citizen hit?”

The proposal, approved by the Senate on Thursday, institutes a state of emergency to allow President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to break the spending ceiling and open public coffers just over three months before the elections.

The PEC gives the government the go-ahead to boost social programs until the end of the year without running into restrictions in the electoral law, which exist to prevent the use of the public machine in favor of any candidate. Bolsonaro ranks second in polls, behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

This PEC, then, would be attached to the proposal that seeks to preserve a regime favored by biofuels – which could lose competitiveness with the measures to reduce the cost of gasoline and diesel recently approved.

The PEC brings measures that will have a total cost of R$ 41.25 billion – a value greater than the R$ 38.75 billion agreed on the day before, in yet another movement to increase the bill. When the measures to tackle the rise in fuel prices began to be discussed, the extra expense was projected at R$ 29.6 billion.

The text provides for the temporary expansion of Auxílio Brasil by R$ 200, bringing the minimum benefit to R$ 600 by the end of the year. The text also authorizes the government to eliminate the Auxílio Brasil queue, create aid for self-employed truck drivers and double the value of Auxílio Gás.

The senators also included a R$2 billion benefit for taxi drivers and an increase of R$500 million in resources for the Alimenta Brasil program, which finances the purchase of food for donation to low-income families.

The proposal was approved in the first round by 72 votes in favor, including the opposition, and only 1 against, by Senator José Serra (PSDB-SP). In the second round, it was 67 votes to 1. 49 favorable votes were needed in the two rounds of appreciation. The PEC now goes to the Chamber of Deputies.