Congress approves basic text of the LDO without mandatory amendments by the rapporteur

Congress approved this Tuesday (12) the basic text of the bill that establishes the guidelines for the preparation of the 2023 Budget without the obligation to pay the so-called rapporteur’s amendments.

This type of amendment became one of the main instruments of negotiation with the National Congress during the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who used the mechanism to garner support in the Legislature for agendas of interest to the Planalto and avoid the opening of an impeachment process against him. .

The vote on the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) was concluded after an agreement by leaders that allowed the proposal to be the first item on the agenda, provided that the imposition was withdrawn and a session to consider the vetoes was scheduled for Thursday (14). ).

The proposal was approved with the favorable vote of 324 federal deputies, against 110 against. PT, Novo, PC do B, PSB, PSOL and Rede guided the vote against the text. In the Senate, there were 46 in favor and 23 against.

One of the benches that opposed the approval was precisely Podemos, party of the rapporteur Marcos do Val (Podes-ES). The PT also took a stand against it.

The session had been suspended on Monday, after pressure from the center against the decision of the rapporteur, Senator Marcos Do Val, to suppress the provision that provided for the mandatory execution of programs included or added by rapporteur amendments.

The passage had been included by Do Val during the processing of the proposal at the CMO (Mixed Budget Committee) and was approved on June 29 by the collegiate. However, the rapporteur himself decided to withdraw the obligation, after pressure and articulation from the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).

The suppression displeased centrist parties, which sought to reverse the measure until moments before the vote. With resistance, however, they gave up on rescuing the device.

Some parliamentarians, such as Senator Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos-PR), even pointed out that the imposition had not been completely removed from the project, since another section provides that the government makes a “reserve” for the payment of the rapporteur’s amendments.

However, the general view of parliamentarians is that this provision does not mean that payment is mandatory, but that resources will be available.

The agreement was announced by the government leader in Congress, Eduardo Gomes (PL-TO), at the beginning of the session. According to him, there was an understanding that the legislation on the rapporteur’s amendment still lacks regulation and further discussion in the CMO and in the House and Senate committees.

The article had been formulated in light of the favoritism scenario of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the presidential race. Lula is critical of the rapporteur’s amendments, which support political negotiations in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Preliminary calculations indicate that, next year, these resources should add up to around R$ 19 billion in the Budget. This value, however, should only be defined in the Budget project, to be discussed in the second semester.

Parliamentary amendments are used by deputies and senators to allocate money from the federal budget to works and projects in their political bases.

The rapporteur’s amendments are not, today, considered binding. This feature, which makes the use of resources a requirement, is currently applied to individual and bench splices.

The LDO approved this Tuesday stipulates the value of R$ 1,294 for the minimum wage in 2023, which means only correction for inflation, without real gain. The text also provides for a primary deficit target for the fiscal and social security budgets of R$65.9 billion.

The project also protects some expenses from financial contingencies and reallocations, such as education, science and technology, demarcation of indigenous lands, projects carried out by the Armed Forces, agricultural defense, among others.

The rapporteur of the proposal, linked to the public security sector, included in his text the forecast of career restructuring and salary recomposition of the careers of the federal police, federal highway police, penitentiary police, in addition to the civil and military police and the fire department of the DF

In addition, it authorized the provision of positions and functions related to current competitions for these careers, up to the budgetary and quantitative limits that will be provided for in the budget.