Chamber resists following the Senate and reducing the term of court orders, says Lira

The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said this Sunday (12) that there is resistance in the House in relation to two changes made by the Senate in the vote on the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório, which makes payment feasible Brazil Aid in the minimum amount of R$400.

In order to approve the bill in the Senate, the government backed down and accepted that the limit for the payment of court-ordered debts — Union debts already recognized by the Courts — will be valid until 2026, and not until 2036 as provided for in the previous version.

According to Lira, the Chamber views this change with concern.

The PEC must be voted on in the House’s plenary this Tuesday (14) and then still needs to go through a new analysis by the Senate. The government wants to complete approval of the proposal this week.

The other point of divergence in the Chamber is the article that provides a calendar for the discharge of court orders throughout the year.

The PEC dos Precatórios is currently the main agenda of interest of President Jair Bolsonaro in Congress. The objective is to authorize the government to spend more and make viable the promise to raise the value of the Brazil Aid in an attempt to boost Bolsonaro’s reelection campaign in 2022.

In order to increase expenses for next year by around R$ 106 billion, the PEC has two pillars.

One measure allows for a dribble in the spending ceiling, retroactively recalculating that limit. The other measure creates a maximum value for the payment of court orders – debts that do not appear on this list will be postponed and paid off in later years.

Senators fear that the creation of a ceiling on the payment of court orders will turn into a “snowball” and the Union will start accumulating too much debt in the future. Therefore, they asked to reduce the term of this measure by ten years.

The possible changes mentioned by Lirna in the version of the PEC approved by the Senate do not change the effects of the proposal on the 2022 Budget.

According to Lira, the Chamber tends to accept the Senate’s amendment to make it clear that the increase in spending in 2022, from the approval of the PEC, will be linked to mandatory expenses, the social area and the extension of the payroll exemption .

Part of the PEC for court orders has already been enacted and, therefore, the pillar that changes the spending ceiling has already come into effect.

Congress has yet to complete the vote on the precatory payment limit. Lira has signaled that this will be finalized this week.

“We need to approve the sub-ceiling [de precatórios] to form the entire R$106 billion expansion [em despesas] for 2022”, stated the president of the Chamber, in an interview with Globonews.

Asked about the rapporteur’s amendments, which are used in political negotiations in Congress, Lira said he believes that the plenary of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) will maintain the decision of Minister Rosa Weber that released the payment of these resources.

The STF even suspended the use of these amendments, but, after an operation mounted by the Planalto Palace and the top of the Congress, the court backed down. However, the decision remains to publicize the list of those who made nominations for these amendments,

Amendment is the way that a deputy and senator can allocate public resources for works and projects in their electoral stronghold.