Understand what parliamentary amendments are and how they work
Understand what parliamentary amendments are and how they work
Parliamentary amendments are slices of the Public Budget indicated by deputies and senators to direct resources to projects and works. They function as a complement to the Union’s annual budget
There are three main classifications: Individual Amendments, State Bench Amendments and Committee Amendments
Individual and bench amendments are, for the most part, mandatory, which means that the federal government has the obligation to execute them
Committee amendments (House, Senate and mixed) are a modality whose execution by the Executive is not mandatory and can be used to negotiate support in Congress
The rapporteur’s amendments, which were at the center of a major debate due to lack of transparency, were declared illegal by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) at the end of 2022
The imposing nature of individual amendments emerged in 2015, marking a change in the Brazilian political model, which previously used the budget as a bargaining chip for the Executive
From 2015 onwards, the volume of amendments skyrocketed, accumulating an increase of R$173 billion above inflation in a decade (until 2024), with values reaching around R$50 billion in 2025
Currently, a senator has around R$68.5 million in funds to nominate, which exceeds the budget of 44% of the country’s municipalities, concentrating great power in the hands of parliamentarians
A major controversy is that, although part of the resources go to health and education, the use is focused on electoral interests, with no clear connection to public policies or technical criteria, according to Ipea
Investigations by the STF and CGU point out irregularities in the “Pix amendments”, such as Styrofoam lining in a hospital and the use of a van purchased with the funds at church events, and fraud in health data
Furthermore, Congress allocated less than 1% of amendments to the environment in a decade, prioritizing the sending of 1,648 heavy machines to the Amazon, which could worsen deforestation, according to Ibama
The political impact is the expansion of the Legislative power over the Union Budget, which weakens the Executive and intensifies regional inequalities. President Lula even classified the imposing amendments as a “hijacking of the Budget”
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