In the Senate, CCJ discusses the Transition PEC

On a high quorum day in the Senate Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) and under many protests from senators from the government base, Senator Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG) presented this Tuesday (6) the opinion of the Proposed Constitutional Amendment called the Transition PEC. The proposal aims to guarantee resources for social programs in the 2023 Union Budget, such as the continuity of the payment of Bolsa Família/Auxílio Brasil of R$ 600 and the real increase in the minimum wage from January. As agreed in a meeting, yesterday, at the official residence of the Chamber of Deputies, the report reduces the deadline for the Bolsa Família exception to the spending ceiling to two years and not four years, as was originally the objective of the transition team. According to the proposal, R$ 175 billion will be allocated for the payment of Bolsa Família, in the amount of R$ 600 per month, plus R$ 150 per child up to six years old in 2023. The remaining resources, R$ 22.9 billion for the next two years, refers to authorization to expand investments. “I opted to remove the social program from the ceiling, but to create a fixed value for this program”, explained Silveira. The senator added that the fear of the market was not having this pre-set value. “I did a mix of approving the thesis of withdrawing from the spending cap, but at the same time pre-fixing the value to give predictability”, he said. By removing expenses from the fiscal rule, the next government will have space of R$ 105 billion in the 2023 Budget for health, education and security, among others. In the report, Silveira also set a deadline for the Chief Executive to submit a supplementary bill to the Legislature “to guarantee the stability” of the economy. “The President of the Republic must submit to the National Congress, by December 31, 2023, a complementary bill with the objective of establishing a sustainable fiscal regime to guarantee the country’s macroeconomic stability and create the appropriate conditions for socioeconomic growth”, says the report. The article also gives a margin of BRL 22.9 billion for the 2023 accounts when executing investments from the ceiling limit based on a portion of excess government revenue. Voting The CCJ of the Senate is the first step in the processing of the text in Congress. The expectation of the senators is that the voting in the collegiate takes place still today. This Tuesday’s meeting has already been interrupted twice to analyze amendments that were presented in the morning. According to the president of the collegiate, Senator Davi Alcolumbre (UB-AP), the session will resume at 2 pm. In order to enable the analysis at the CCJ as soon as possible, the forecast is that a period of up to one hour be granted for the request for a collective view that will be made by members of the government and then the vote in the committee. The text will also need to be approved by at least 49 senators in the plenary of the House, where it is already on the agenda in tomorrow’s session. After winning the Senate stage, the PEC will proceed for analysis by the Deputies. There, also in two rounds, it will need the support of 308 parliamentarians so that it can be enacted before Christmas.

Agência Brasil