THE cost cutting package which limits the real increase in the minimum wage, gradually reduces the beneficiaries of the salary bonus and creates restrictions on access to Bolsa Família and the Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC) remains on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies this Wednesday (4). Placed as a priority for Congress and the Executive, the urgency to vote on the package it was not voted on on Tuesday night (3). 
The delay occurs at the same time as the Federal Supreme Court (STF) unanimously definedthe rules for releasing parliamentary amendments with criteria not provided for in the law on the subject approved in Parliament.
By injunction issued in August this year, STF minister Flávio Dino suspended payment of resources used by parliamentarians for demands in their electoral bases. He alleged a lack of transparency and traceability of resources.
After the judgment yesterday (3) that authorized the release of the amendments, the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) requested the review of the sections that deal with the approval of a work plan to release the amendments, the nominal identification of the requesting parliamentarians and the which deals with the growth in the total volume of amendments for 2025.
The AGU maintains that the law approved by Congress and sanctioned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva corrected the problems highlighted by the STF. “What we are doing, therefore, is simply seeking a better understanding of three specific points of the decision that, in our understanding, are already included in the standard and reflect what was agreed between the Federal Government and Congress on the matter”, he stated the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias.
The Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil – Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil
In one of these points, which deals with the so-called pix amendments (special transfers), the AGU ensures that the law attributed the competence to approve the work plan to the state or municipality benefiting from the money, and not to the sectoral ministry that releases the resource, as defined by the STF.
Reviews
In this Tuesday’s plenary session, parliamentarians criticized the rules defined by the STF for transparency and traceability of amendments. Deputy Alceu Moreira (MDB-RS) lamented that “now, even to apply the budget amendment, you have to ask Dino for permission. If he lets you, yes. I mean, I became a deputy of half a spoon”.
Representative Gustavo Gayer (PL-GO) highlighted that Congress is concerned about how to get the amendments back. “That’s the only thing we’re talking about here: how are we going to get back the amendments that Flávio Dino, Lula’s friend, blocked in the STF,” he said.
