Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (CRA) took advantage of an empty session this Thursday morning (7th) to trample and advance two controversial proposals criticized by environmentalists.
The ruralist caucus managed to complete a maneuver to try to vote on the so-called PL do Veneno before the parliamentary recess – which starts on the 18th – and also approved, in a final character, the bill that amends the Forest Code to allow the construction of reservoirs of water in permanent preservation areas (APPs).
as showed the Sheetthe two proposals are part of a series of matters with an environmental impact that have been advancing without the obstruction or even with the complacency of President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
Some of these proposals have even bypassed the Environment Commission (CMA) and the House plenary, passing only by the Agriculture Commission, which is controlled by ruralists.
The most important project of the package, dubbed by critics as “Boiadinhas”, is precisely the PL do Veneno, which removes decision-making power from Ibama and Anvisa and makes a series of rules related to pesticides more flexible.
By decision of Pacheco, the project is not expected to go through the Environment Commission, but only through the CRA, where it is currently located and where it should be debated by two public hearings before being deliberated.
However, this Thursday morning, the president of the Agriculture Committee, Acir Guracz (PDT-RO) – who is also the rapporteur of the project – presented a request of his own to cancel the hearings, read his own report on the matter and approved a request for collective views for the text, with the forecast that the topic will be voted on next week.
All this in less than ten minutes, with no time for debate and without the project being initially included in the agenda of the CRA session – that is, it was not possible to predict that the topic would be addressed this Thursday, which makes it difficult for the opposition to articulate.
With the maneuver, the PL do Veneno, if approved by the commission next week, can go to the Senate plenary on the same day – that is, it can be deliberated even before the parliamentary recess, which begins on the 18th.
During the plenary session this Thursday, after the CRA meeting, Senator Eliziane Gama (Citizenship-MA) criticized the procedures taken by the commission and the maneuver to advance the bill on pesticides.
The parliamentarian, who is leader of the women’s bench, denounced the breach of agreement for two public hearings to be held before the proposal was put to a vote. She also added that ruralists took advantage of an empty session, with some senators with connection problems, to “run over” and include the proposal on the agenda in an “untimely” way.
“When the internet comes back [para mim]the session is already over and ended with the president [da CRA] putting the project on the agenda, as an extra agenda, suspending the request for a public hearing and asking for views to be deliberated in the next session”, he said.
“The majority can win the vote, but they cannot win by shouting, they cannot win by trampling, especially a project like this that has an immeasurable environmental impact for Brazil”, he added.
The senator also criticized Pacheco’s decision to allocate the Poison Bill only to be processed in the CRA, despite the fact that it impacts not only the environment, but also health, since it deals with pesticides.
Another project that advanced in the CRA was the proposal that allows the construction of water reservoirs in APPs.
It only passed through the Agriculture Commission and was deliberated in a final character – that is, approved this Thursday, it does not need to go through the plenary, but goes directly to the Chamber of Deputies.
The procedure had direct interference from Pacheco. The project was presented to the Senate at the beginning of 2019 and had been stalled since the second half of that year until, on March 8 of this year, the president of the House answered a request and defined that it would go through the Environment Committee and, after , would go to Agriculture, ultimately.
A week later, however, without any application being registered, he rectified his own order and excluded the CMA from the process, going straight to the CRA, maintaining the final character.
In the CRA, the opposition managed to postpone the vote on the issue a few times, with requests for views.
Now that the bill has been approved, senators can still try, in the coming days, to present a request for it to be deliberated in the plenary, but they need to collect at least ten signatures in their favor.
Two amendments were included in the text of the proposal, which aim to create rules to mitigate the impact of creating water reservoirs in preservation areas. For example, requiring that the rural property be registered in the Rural Environmental Registry and that an environmental licensing be carried out before construction.
Critics of the amendment say that the Forest Code currently allows different forms of intervention in APPs and that the changes, by allowing changes in river flows and deforestation of forests, put at risk such areas, which are important for the balance of fauna and flora.
Recently, two other projects of the “Boiadinhas” also advanced in the Senate. Last Wednesday (6), the proposal that provides for a discount on environmental fines for farmers was approved. Two weeks ago, on the 23rd, the text that allows private inspection of agribusiness was also passed.
