The president of the STF responded to a request from Flávio Dino given the “exceptionality” of the case; Session starts at 6pm and runs until 11:59pm on Tuesday
The president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Roberto Barroso responded to a request from minister Flávio Dino and called an extraordinary virtual session this Monday (Dec 2, 2024) to analyze Dino’s decision that released the payment of congressmen’s amendments.
The session will start at 6pm and continue until 11:59pm on Tuesday (Dec 3). In the virtual plenary, there is no debate between the magistrates, who just cast their votes on the online platform. Here is Barroso’s order (PDF – 96 kB).
The President of the Court states that he accepted his colleague’s request due to the “substantiated exceptionality of the case”. Transfer payments had been suspended since August following a decision by Dino himself, who demanded greater transparency in the allocation of amendments.
After the approval of stricter rules for allocation, and pressure from Congress, Dino determined in a decision this 2nd (2nd December) the resumption of payments, but imposed some reservations for each modality. Read below:
- rapporteur amendments (RP-9), known as the “secret budget”, and committee amendments (RP-8): they are only released with the proper identification of congressmen, and it is up to the Executive to assess transparency and release on a case-by-case basis;
- Pix amendments: can be paid with due presentation of the prior work plan. Amendments of this modality prior to 2025 have a period of 60 days to present a work plan;
- bench splices: their values must be allocated jointly by congressmen, without there being any “apportionment” of the values. An audit will be carried out by the CGU (Comptroller General of the Republic) in October 2025;
- amendments aimed at NGOs: They can only be released with proper publication on websites. Without this, there can be no release of either old or future transfers; and
- amendments aimed at Health: they need technical indications from the federal manager, with the need for approval by the bipartite and tripartite commissions of the SUS (Unified Health System). Without prior approval, the amendment will not be released.
In addition to restrictions on transfers, the judge also establishes a limit on the evolution of spending on amendments. It was decided that the amount cannot grow indefinitely and, from 2025, the lowest of 3 parameters must be used: the fiscal framework, the variation in Net Current Revenue or the evolution of the Executive’s discretionary expenses.
