Senators do not ask questions and nominees for Anvisa and ANS are approved in committee

The names nominated by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for the directions of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and ANS (National Supplementary Health Agency) underwent a light hearing this Tuesday (5) at the CAS (Commission on Social Affairs). ) of the Senate.

Despite agencies coming under the spotlight and questioning during the Covid-19 pandemic, senators did not ask candidates questions.

Bolsonaro made 21 nominations to regulatory agencies and federal authorities this Monday (4). The list includes a friend of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).

The committee members approved by 11 votes to zero the names of lawyer Daniel Meirelles to Anvisa and doctor Jorge Aquino Lopes to ANS.

By agreement with the government, the hearings of some of the names, in addition to others that had been previously nominated, entered the agenda of Senate committees this Tuesday.

In total, the collegiate bodies put on the agenda 23 processes for the approval of authorities.

The rapporteur for the nominations for Anvisa and ANS, Senator Sérgio Petecão (PSD-AC), acknowledged that the day was unusual in the Senate and that the committee that discusses health matters was empty.

“Today we are faced with a situation that we had never seen here. So many meetings in one day”, said the senator during the meeting.

The nominations of Meirelles and Lopes will still be voted on in the Senate. Bolsonaro also needs to confirm the appointment in the Official Gazette.

Health agencies came under pressure from Congress during the pandemic, but senators decided not to question candidates this Wednesday (5).

Anvisa regulates the registration and monitoring of various products, such as medicines, pesticides, cigarettes, cosmetics and medical devices. It also deals with the sanitary control of the borders.

ANS is responsible for regulating the coverage and prices of health plans.

Current special advisor to Minister Marcelo Queiroga (Health), Meirelles was even mentioned during the Covid CPI. Congressmen recalled an episode from 2020, when the lawyer was deputy director at ANS and participated in the hiring process for the agency of a daughter of Braga Netto, a former defense minister and possible candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket.

After negative repercussions, the hiring process was interrupted.

Sinagencias (National Union of Servants of National Regulatory Agencies) had questioned the government about possible cross nepotism. That’s because Meirelles is still the brother of Thiago Meirelles, at the time executive secretary of the Civil House, a portfolio that was under the command of Braga Netto and that would give approval to the hiring.

The lawyer’s brother currently works at Planalto as deputy head of Articulation and Monitoring.

Aquino was appointed to the ANS for the first time in 2020, but the process was stalled due to a lack of political agreement between Congress and the government on the direction of the agency.

The interview of candidates for agencies that regulate the health sector was limited to reading Petecão’s report and short speeches by Meirelles and Aquino.

The doctor said he was the founder of the first Samu in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. Meirelles recalled that he is a public servant of the ANS and that he had experience in the Ministry of Health during the pandemic.

Health agencies have also come under pressure from the government during the pandemic.

Anvisa came to be seen as a barrier to the government by President Bolsonaro (PL). He even threatened to expose the names of the agency’s servers who acted in the release of Pfizer’s vaccine for children. He also suggested that there were interests in the approval of immunizers.

In response, Barra Torres demanded the president’s retraction.

ANS, on the other hand, was emptied, with only one titular director, in the midst of the crisis that involved the operator Prevent Senior in the pandemic.