The National Congress decided this Thursday (9) to partially overturn President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) veto on the section of the Annual Budget Law (LOA) that suspended the sending of R$5.6 billion in commission amendments.
The partial overturn was agreed with party leaders in the Chamber and Senate. With this, parliamentarians managed to reestablish the value of R$3.6 billion in commission amendments.
During the session, vetoes of R$4.2 billion in commission amendments were overturned. But the government leader, Randolfe Rodrigues (No party-AP), says that the additional R$600 million is to adjust “undue vetoes” at the time of sanction and that, in practice, the recomposition will only be R$3.6 billion.
As it was a joint vote by deputies and senators, the overthrow is divided into two votes. In the Chamber, there were 371 votes for overturning and 21 for maintenance. In the Senate, there were 61 votes to overturn the veto and 1 to maintain it.
The LOA sets out the federal government’s Budget for the year, which provides an estimate of revenue and sets limits for public spending.
The amendments make up an amount reserved in the Union Budget that is applied as indicated by parliamentarians. They are divided into: individual, state benches and commission.
PT leads the ranking of parties that received the most amendments in the Chamber, followed by MDB and União
The text approved by Congress released the amount of R$16.6 billion for amendments indicated by the committees. With the veto, the government cut R$5.6 billion that was allocated to this type of amendment.
At the time, the government justified that the amount was vetoed due to the fact that during the processing of the LOA, “primary expenditure allocations initially programmed by the Executive Branch suffered a considerable reduction”.
“Despite the good intention of the legislator in order to direct resources to areas of legitimate interest of the committees that authored the amendments, and in view of the aforementioned reduction, relevant programs are compromised that require recomposition, even if partial, making it necessary to veto part of the appropriations related to the RP 8 amendments, in the amount of R$5.6 billion, contrary to the public interest”, says the document.
The cut provoked a reaction in Congress, which initially wanted to overturn the veto entirely.
Bruno Carraza comments on the impasse of parliamentary amendments
The agreement to recompose part of these funds involved the approval of a project that allows for an increase of around R$15 billion in government spending in 2024 — part of this amount will be used to compensate for the partial resumption of commission amendments.
The measure was included within the proposal that resumes the collection of mandatory vehicle insurance, approved by the Senate on Wednesday (8) and sent to Lula for sanction.
One of the vetoes to the LOA will still be analyzed in the next session of Congress, scheduled for May 28, at the request of the government. The item deals with a budget that would be allocated to the Ministry of Communications.
Tags: Congress partially overturns Lulas veto releases R3 .6 billion commission amendments Policy
