Chamber approves in the first round the basic text of the PEC dos Precatórios

The Chamber of Deputies approved, in the first round, at dawn this Thursday (4), by 312 votes to 144, the basic text of the Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the Precatório. To be approved, the PEC needs the support of 308 deputies in two rounds of voting, and now it will be voted a second time by parliamentarians.

This was the third attempt by the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), to place the text for analysis by parliamentarians in the plenary, which only happened after a long day of negotiations.

In the search for approval of the text, the day began with a lunch between Lira and deputies from the base.

According to interlocutors, it was at the meeting that the parliamentarians decided to give in in the face of resistance, especially regarding the non-payment of precatories for teachers via the Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Elementary Education and the Valorization of Teaching (Fundef) in 2022.

Thus, in a kind of final card, Lira waved, in the beginning of the afternoon, to the opposition, with the possibility of paying off, as early as next year, 40% of the judicial debts owed to state professors.

With this, the remaining 60% of an amount of R$ 16 billion would be paid in the years 2023 and 2024: 30% each year. The states that concentrate these judicial debts are Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco.

Afternoon Agreements

However, at a meeting shortly after the agreement was proposed, the Workers’ Party (PT), one of the largest caucuses in the House, with 53 deputies, went against the matter and closed a question among its members so that everyone could vote to disapprove the text.

In other meetings, other opposition parties were against it, but the president of the Chamber got votes between PDT and PSB parliamentarians. For this, Lira also committed to vote on a bill that prioritizes, from now on, the payment of teachers in funds earmarked for Education.

According to interlocutors, after the promises, Lira did the math and decided to go all or nothing. The session, in fact, only started around 10 pm, when the rapporteur of the text, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), presented a new amendment, providing for the agreement to pay the precatório to teachers and also guarantee the necessary margin for the payment of an additional amount in Auxílio Brasil, a substitute for Bolsa Família, in order to reach at least R$400 to low-income families.

remote voting

In addition to giving in to changes in the final text, in order to vote on the PEC dos Precatórios on Wednesday, the president of the Chamber edited an act published in the Official Gazette of the House that allowed the remote vote of the proposal to parliamentarians outside Brasília, on an authorized mission .

According to the calculations of the presidency of the House, about 20 deputies were listed as able to vote remotely. The change in the form of voting was also an attempt to increase the quorum, as many lawmakers refused to be in the Federal District after a long holiday – because it is a PEC, approval needs at least 308 votes from the 513 parliamentarians, in two rounds.