The reform of the composition of the Council of the Judiciary and the endorsement of the Fiscal Consensus 2022 signed between the Executive Power and the majority of the governors appear at the top of the work agenda with which the National Congress will face the work agenda of extraordinary sessions convened for February.
beyond being the first two of the 18 topics listed by the presidential decreein practice they will also be the two that will lead the legislative work chronologically, with a treatment that, in both cases, will begin with the Senate, the Chamber in which the initiatives were presented.
As for the agreement with the IMF on the external debt announced last Friday by President Alberto Fernández, sources from the ruling party pointed out that recently it would enter the chamber debate after the Legislative Assembly on March 1st.
For now, to begin the debate on the reform of the Judicial Council, the ratification of the Fiscal Consensus and the rest of the issues, Both chambers will have to focus in the next few days on rearming the work commissions whose integrations expired with the legislative change of last December 10.
Only the Budget Committees of the Senate and Deputies are integrated, since in the last days of last year they had to analyze the projects of the 2022 Budget -rejected- and the modification of the Tax on Personal Assets.
Regarding the project of the Council of the Judiciarythe ruling party is in a column behind the text sent by the Executive Power, while Together for Change seeks to entrench itself behind a consensus position between its different internal expressions.
It is that today there are numerous projects of the main opposition caucus, some of them with quite antagonistic proposals: the president of the radical bloc Mario Negri; Federal Meeting, the block of Margarita Stolbizer and Emilio Monzo; Formoseño former judge Fernando Carvajal and macrista Pablo Tonelli, are some of the authors of the initiatives.
The ruling party and the opposition differ, basically, in that the latter propose that a member of the Supreme Court rejoin the Council -some even propose that he should also preside over it- while the FdT reject the return of a Supreme Court minister to his composition.
On the subject of the Fiscal Consensusthe numbers seem to be easier for the ruling party, based on the support for the agreement of the opposition governments of Jujuy, Corrientes, Mendoza, Córdoba, Neuquén, Misiones and Rio Negro, and the consequent support that the legislators of those forces would give to the initiative.
In addition to these two topics, the Regime for the Promotion of Agroindustrial Development, the Law for the Promotion of Electromobility; the text on the promotion of Investments in the Automotive-Autoparts Industry and its Value Chain; that of Buy Argentine and Development of Suppliers and the initiative by which the terms established in Law 27,613, on the Incentive Regime for Argentine Federal Construction and Access to Housing, are extended.
In educational matters, the call signed by the president foresees the creation of the national universities of the Delta and Pilar.
On the health issue, the treatment of the Law projects for the Promotion of Nursing Training and Development is foreseen; Prevention and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance; which seeks to provide a comprehensive response to HIV, Viral Hepatitis and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and Tuberculosis (TBC).
It is also contemplated to analyze the initiative that seeks to establish the regulatory framework of the chain of production, industrialization and commercialization of the cannabis plant, its seeds and its derived products for industrial and/or medicinal use, including scientific research, with a view to satisfying the local market and generating exports.
Regarding Environment, the corresponding commissions would address the bills by which the “Agujero Azul” Benthic Marine Protected Area is created; the one that catalogs as such the Ansenuza and Bañados del Río Dulce National Park and Reserve, in Córdoba, and the one that creates the Islote Lobos National Park and Reserve, in Río Negro.
In addition, the treatment of Agreements -by the Senate- and declarations of property transfers were included on a generic basis.
In addition, to the formal times that the distribution of representations of each block and of authorities of the commissions will demand, it is added Another factor that could postpone the start of the full activity of Congress: the Covid cases.
Like the rest of the professional activities, the parliamentary field is not exempt from the general picture: cases of Covid -with much milder symptoms than a year ago-; cases of people with symptoms and in swabbing processes or waiting for results and close contacts with infected people are part of everyday life.
With this scenario, sources close to the main benches of both Chambers anticipated that “No block will risk anything in the face of a possible scenario that can be modified by one or more Covid cases that force the absence of legislators.”
As an immediate background, weighs the opportunity that Together for the Change in Deputies missed to be able to impose its text on the modification to Personal Assets: with a PRO deputy absent due to Covid, it lost 127 to 126 the vote that finally allowed the sanctioned project to be that of the Everyone’s front.
However, from the main congressional benches they rule out for the moment the possibility of resuming remote work, even for those cases of legislators with positive Covid results.
