After the year-end recess, which began on December 23, the National Congress resumes work next Wednesday (2). In a year of majority elections, the trend is a reduction in the number of votes compared to other years. This is because parliamentarians will be involved with their own campaigns in their states, especially in the second half of the year. Even so, important issues, some controversial, are expected to be discussed both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate.
Provisional Measure
Congress is due to vote on two important provisional measures (MP), edited by the government in December. One concerns the donation of vaccines to other countries. According to the Ministry of Health announced in December, 10 million vaccines must be donated. Of these, it is certain that 500 thousand doses will go to Paraguay.
The other PM deals with the expansion of the University for All Program (Prouni). The program for granting full and partial scholarships at private colleges, which used to be aimed only at students from public schools or scholarship holders, began to expand access to the program to scholarship students or non-private school graduates.
The monthly per capita family income cannot exceed three minimum wages, but the MP provides the possibility of waiving the presentation of the document that proves the family income and the situation of people with disabilities, when the information is available in databases of organs of the government.
In addition, there was a change in the reserve of quotas for blacks, indigenous peoples and people with disabilities. With the measure, the percentage of blacks, browns or indigenous people and people with disabilities will be considered in isolation, and no longer together.
fuels
In the Senate, the agenda provides for the vote on the project to contain the high and lack of predictability in fuel prices. In mid-January, the president of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco, stated his interest in guiding a project by Senator Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE).
At the time, the Senate press office informed that Pacheco will submit the decision on whether or not to consider the project to the College of Leaders, in February. However, Pacheco already has a right name for the project’s rapporteur, Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN).
The project foresees the formation of prices of fuels derived from petroleum having as reference the average quotations of the international market, the internal costs of production and the costs of importation.
The topic is also closely monitored by the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira. Currently, Petrobras’ pricing policy links the dollar exchange rate to the fuel price paid by the consumer. This policy was adopted in 2016, as soon as Michel Temer became President of the Republic.
Tax reform
On the agenda of the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), tax reform is considered a priority by the chairman of the commission, Senator Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP). He intends to schedule the reading of the report, by Senator Roberto Rocha (PSDB-MA), in early February. Furthermore, Alcolumbre plans to take the proposal to the House plenary in February and, along with it, a request for urgency in dealing with the matter.
Animal game
An agenda dear to President Jair Bolsonaro is the one that legalizes gambling in Brazil, including casinos and Jogo do Bicho. The project is in the Chamber and was discussed in the penultimate week of work in December, but the parliamentarians thought it best to analyze the matter a little more. The text under debate is a substitute presented by Deputy Felipe Carreras (PSB-PE) on behalf of the working group that analyzed the topic.
The article proposes the legalization of all types of games, such as casinos integrated into resorts, urban casinos, Jogo do Bicho, sports betting, bingos, skill games and horse racing. Licenses will be awarded through auctions, and games will be overseen by a federal regulatory and supervisory body.
The privatization of the Post Office, passed the House in August 2021, has stalled in the Senate. The project is in the Committee on Economic Affairs (CAE) and was even read in the committee, but the draftsman of the text in the Senate, Márcio Bittar (PSL-AC), decided to change his opinion.
Bittar included a minimum period for post offices to remain open in municipalities with less than 15,000 inhabitants in remote areas of the Legal Amazon. The region encompasses 772 municipalities, all of which are located in the states of Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Pará, Amapá, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, in addition to part of the municipalities of Maranhão. Bittar’s proposal provides for the operation of these agencies for 60 months after the privatization of the state-owned company.
legislative year
The legislative year begins, by tradition, with a solemn session of the National Congress, scheduled for 4 pm, this Wednesday (2) with the presence of the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro; the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Luiz Fux, in addition to the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco.
Traditionally, the session takes place in a plenary of the Chamber full of deputies and senators. But, due to the expansion of the covid-19 pandemic, with a new increase in cases, the session will be semi-person. That is, parliamentarians will be able to participate in person or by videoconference. The session begins with the reading of the message from the President of the Republic. In it, he takes stock of the activities of the previous year and projects the work of the current year. Fux, Pacheco and Lira also spoke at the session.
Before the beginning of the session, there is a rite to be performed outside the Congress. The National Anthem is performed by the Presidential Guard Battalion band, at the same time as the Gala Salute (21 cannon shots) is performed by the 32nd Field Artillery Group (Cayenne Battery).
Then Rodrigo Pacheco, who is also president of Congress, reviews the troops and goes up the ramp together with Lira. At the top, they await the arrival of the President of the Republic. If it’s raining, however, this entire part of the ceremony is canceled and everyone will enter through the Headgear, a covered access, on the lower floor of the Congress ramp.
