The president (PT) decided to stop without prior agreement with the government.
Furthermore, just over R$7 billion in amendments will be reallocated through Executive acts, without the need for Legislative approval. Another R$3 billion, approximately, will also be tied up waiting for a bill to be sent to Congress to restore the dehydrated shares. In this case, it will be necessary to negotiate the change with parliamentarians.
The objective of the Lula government is to replenish the budget for social policies that were the target of a robbery by parliamentarians, who redirected the resources to actions of their interest in . In total, the amount transferred by congressmen reached R$11.5 billion.
As shown by Sheetthe cut affected benefits such as Nest Egg and Gas Aid, among other priority policies for the government. At the time, the assessment was that the programs indicated by the Executive were “plucked”.
The deadline for sanctioning the 2026 Budget ends this Wednesday (14), hence the need to decide whether or not to maintain the stamped resources.
According to a member of the economic team, the strategy for restoring the values was designed in order to try to prevent a pure and simple veto from being overturned in the future by parliamentarians, making it difficult or even impossible to replace the funds.
To put it into practice, the government will make use of the LOA (Annual Budget Law) itself, which authorizes the cancellation of up to 30% of the amounts of discretionary expenses to supplement other actions.
During the processing, the rapporteur of the proposal, deputy Isnaldo Bulhões (MDB-AL), even considered a lower percentage, 10%, which would limit the action of the economic team. But the government ended up ensuring the approval of the device, which now gives it greater room for maneuver without the need for approval from the Legislature.
Lula has had conflicts throughout his term regarding the payment of amendments. In December, the president once again criticized the volume of funds defined by the Legislature and said that “the National Congress sequestering 50% of the Union Budget is a serious historical error.”
Despite the criticism, the PT member kept names from the center in charge of bodies that usually issue amendments, such as the state-owned Codevasf and the Ministry of Sports.
The veto of around R$400 million will be based on , which formalized the agreement between the government, Congress and (Supreme Federal Court), after questions about the lack of transparency in the application of resources.
The rule sets a maximum limit on funds allocated to deputies and senators. It also prohibits the cancellation of the Executive’s discretionary expenses — used to finance funding and investment contracts, called “RP2” in budgetary jargon — to redirect the funds to other actions with a specific location or recipient.
By law, the limit in 2026 will be R$26.6 billion for individual amendments, R$15.2 billion for bench amendments (of which R$4 billion was reallocated to the electoral fund) and R$12.1 billion for commission amendments.
The R$11.5 billion was reallocated beyond these amounts. Within this amount, the government identified around R$400 million inserted with a specific recipient or location, violating the legislation. Hence the need for a veto.
The possibility of the government having already been anticipated by Sheet in December.
The decision comes after the Budget rapporteur reduced R$436 million from the program, which pays scholarships to encourage students to remain in high school. The action had already lost another R$105.5 million during the processing of the 2026 accounts at the CMO (Mixed Budget Committee). Thus, reserved resources fell from R$12 billion to R$11.46 billion.
Isnaldo took another R$300.7 million from the Auxílio Gás dos Brasileiros program, which pays low-income families the equivalent of a 13 kg cooking gas cylinder.
This policy had also already lost resources in the CMO’s sectoral reports. In the final balance, the amount reserved fell from R$5.1 billion to R$4.73 billion.
There were also cuts of R$391.2 million in unemployment insurance, R$262 million in grants from Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), R$207 million in salary bonuses and R$72 million in grants from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).
In Social Security, the rapporteur made a cut of R$6.2 billion in the amount allocated to benefits. With the change, reserved resources fell from R$1.134 trillion to R$1.128 trillion.
According to government technicians, this reduction occurred because the government revised the INPC projection, an inflation indicator that is a reference in the correction of the minimum wage. The problem is that the Executive indicated the actions for which resources should be reallocated, which was not followed by parliamentarians.
