The new version of the bill that regulates the execution of these created a loophole for these funds to be increased beyond the limit negotiated with the Executive and without due transparency.
The change is contained in the opinion presented by the rapporteur, senator Ângelo Coronel (PSD-BA), who is also the rapporteur of the 2025 Budget.
The approved text provided for a limit on the growth of all types of amendments (individual, bench or committee) and allowed only one exception: relocations between actions already foreseen in the discretionary expenses of the Budget itself.
With the changes made by the rapporteur, the Senate was considering voting on it this Wednesday night (13).
Ângelo Coronel’s opinion also decided to exclude from the limit “those that are not identified under the terms of the caput of this article, as long as they are of national or regional interest and do not contain a specific location”.
In practice, the device will allow parliamentarians to cut Executive expenses to boost amendments without running into the limits established in the bill.
The measure contradicts the agreement signed between the Executive and Legislative, under the mediation of the (Federal Supreme Court), and paves the way for a “secret super budget”, in the assessment of technicians familiar with the discussions.
During this Wednesday’s session (13), the government leader in Congress, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), warned that the change could, in practice, introduce secrecy to the parliamentary amendment and called for the section to be overturned.
While the rapporteur’s amendments, a tool disseminated in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and declared unconstitutional by the STF, had a specific identification (called RP 9), the new amendments based on this device would not even be traceable by this record.
In his opinion, the rapporteur said he understood “it is important to include a reservation not only for amendments to correct errors and omissions, but also for state bench and commission amendments aimed at projects of national or regional interest, without specific location”.
Technicians who work in Congress recognize that the concept of “national or regional interest” described in the text is quite broad and can be interpreted by parliamentarians in light of their interests.
The agreement signed by the Executive on the amendments provides for the maintenance of individual and bench tax amendments in 2025. From 2026 onwards, this value will be corrected for inflation plus the percentage of real expansion of the fiscal framework limit — which can vary between 0 .6% and 2.5% per year.
In addition, the negotiation also agreed to allocate R$11.5 billion next year for commission amendments. From 2026, this value will be adjusted for inflation. The government even now.
The combination will increase the total value of the amendments to R$50.5 billion in 2025. The change made by the rapporteur does not, in practice, allow this bill to become even higher.
On the other hand, Ângelo Coronel also made a change favorable to the government and resumed the possibility of proportionally blocking amendments when other mandatory expenses grow above what was planned by the Executive. The measure, however, faces resistance among parliamentarians.
In the text approved by the Chamber, there was only the possibility of contingency (when the frustration of revenues puts the fulfillment of the fiscal target at risk), which, in the government’s view, broke the agreement signed in the STF. The resumption of the blockade gives the economic team more instruments for fiscal management of the Budget.
