Project that standardizes amendments is approved

The National Congress approved this Thursday (13.mar.2025) that changes the internal rule on amendments of deputies and senators. The text goes to promulgation. The Senate President, (União Brasil-AP), conducted the session.

In the House, 361 deputies voted yes and 33 voted no. Voting in the Senate began through the House’s virtual system, but not all senators were able to connect.

Alcolumbre even considered making a symbolic vote in the Senate, but then canceled the progress and decided that the appreciation would be through the virtual virtual voting application.

In the Senate, 64 voted yes and 3 voted no. The text was filed on Tuesday (11.mar) and reported by the senator (PL-TO).

The PRN (National Congress Resolution Project) changes excerpts from which determines the limits and rules for the destination and identification of the different types of amendments – inbidden those of bench, commission and individual.

According to Alcolumbre, the text will serve to meet the work plan agreed with the (Federal Supreme Court), with the objective of improving transparency of transfers.

The federal deputies (PSOL-RJ) and (Novo-SP) questioned the project voting period, but Alcolumbre said that the postponement of the vote would impair the appreciation of the.

“The deadline is excellent not only for the legislature to meet its part, but for the new rules to be integrated into the execution of the 2025 annual budget law, so it is an urgent, unavoidable and necessary response.”said the Senate President.

Glauber questioned that the text does not explicit if deputies who indicate amendments to bench leaders will be properly identified. Alcolumbre and Gomes said congressmen could be individualized in the minutes.

In Annex 3 of the project, there is the standard of the amendments indicated by leaders. In the document there is a spreadsheet that describes the amendments, but there is no room to identify the deputy who indicated it. Here Project (PDF – 4 MB).

Glauber and Adriana questioned that the possibility of putting the names in the minutes does not mean the obligation that was established by the Supreme Court. “The requesting parliamentarian will not be able to not identify, because he has to sign”Gomes, the rapporteur, said to the congressmen.

“As long as we are not clear in the criterion, the division of the cake, as it divides by party, deputy, senator, has no answer. This is for English to see, unfortunately, is institutionalizing amendment of a party leader who is not in our constitution. We have to have a precise list ”said Adriana.

(PSOL-RJ) said there was “Attroly” in the project vote. “The project had an obligation to advance much more, to ensure individualization, accountability, traceability and the limit of these resources”he said.

Government leader in the National Congress, the senator (PT-AP) said the bill is the result of the agreement between the powers and should be “celebrated.”

Voltage with the STF and project on amendments

Congressmen’s amendments have been the target of a series of decisions by Minister Flávio Dino since August 2024, which culminated in the suspension of the imposing amendments, whose payment is mandatory by the government. The minister’s actions caused a tension between the three powers.

Congress in November the voting of a bill that creates rules for the allocation and rendering of accounts of individual amendments (including special transfers, known as pix amendments), state benches and commissions.

The proposal, however, leaves gaps in relation to transparency of transfers.

The identification of congressmen who indicate the commission amendments that came out of Congress. It is one of the central points of the discussion about the transparency of amendments.

A technical note made by the Senate consultancy at the time that the bill did not meet “virtually none” of the requirements made by the Supreme Court. Read A (PDF – 3 MB).

“The project does not respond to virtually any of the demands posed by these two normative sources: 14 identified criteria and parameters, only 3 of them are substantially met by the project devices, and yet these 2 questions are already in current regulations.”said the consultancy.

The document considered that the core of what the STF determined is out of the text. “The two fundamental gaps pointed out in court decisions are unattended: the traceability in the origin of the collective amendments (and their indications) and the execution of special transfers (‘pix amendments),” the note said.

REPORT

Gomes included The following points in the text:

• Authorization for the CMO (Joint Budget Commission) to issue rules regarding the admissibility of amendments, to avoid doubts of congressmen, state benches and commissions;
• Disclosure of the criteria for analyzing the adequacy of amendments by the admissibility committee of amendments before the presentation;
• Extension of the current CMO mandate until budget approval. The 2025 law should have been passed in 2024, but has not yet been voted;
• Postponement of the term of the provisions regarding the submission of amendments to avoid the need to reopen the deadline for them to be re -presented.

STF Approves Work Plan

On March 3, the STF ministers were unanimous to maintain the decision of Flávio Dino who approved the one presented by Congress and the Government to ensure the payment of congressmen’s amendments.

With the approval of the plan by the plenary of the court, the execution of the amendments to the budget of 2025, as well as those related to previous years, was released, except:

• which were suspended after audits of the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) in NGOs (Non -Government Organization) and entities;
• which were destined to the Ministry of Health and were not in specific accounts duly regularized in the competent banks;
• PIX amendments without approved work plan; Commission and bench amendments without the identification of the requesting congressman published on the Transparency Portal;
• and have some court order that restricts it.

The purpose of the plan is to give more transparency and traceability to amendments. One of the main measures is that the congressman who requests and supports the appeal is nominally identified.

The proposal also promises to standardize and structure the data regarding bench, commission, and the old rapporteur amendments within 30 days.

In relation to the commission amendments for the year 2025, the Plan promised:

• standardize minutes and spreadsheets;
• Identify, on the transparency portal, the name of the congressmen who request and support the amendments;
• Disseminate in easily accessible link and consult all minutes and spreadsheets of the House and Senate permanent committees.

Already in reference to bench amendments, also in the exercise of 2025, the plan proposed:

• Identify proponent congressmen on the Transparency Portal, with a direct link to the detail of the amendment, released on the CMO (Joint Commission of Plans, Public Budgets and Inspection) website;
• standardize minutes and spreadsheets;
• Make available on the CMO website the minutes and worksheets of the state benches that approve the amendments, as well as the indication for their execution.

Regarding the commission amendments for the years 2022 to 2024, the general orientation is to expand transparency, integrating information about the congressmen supporting amendments and making the data available in the system of “Support registration with parliamentary amendments”.

The same is proposed in relation to the amendments of rapporteur of the 2020s, 2021 and 2022. According to the document, the work plan is “Result of significant advancement in the dialogue between the Executive and Legislative Powers for the implementation of transparency and traceability of parliamentary amendments, in relation to which approval is required.”