I’m going to meet with Pacheco to deal with changes in the PEC dos Precatórios, says Lira

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said this Thursday (2) that he will meet with the president of the Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), to deal with texts common to the two Houses and on the amendments to the PEC dos Precatório.

The measure was approved in two rounds this Thursday in the Senate and will return to the Chamber — where it needs 308 votes —, as its text has been changed.

“I am now leaving for another meeting with President Pacheco, where we are going to analyze the common texts. Any very substantial changes we have no alternative to bring to the plenary. So let’s see the common text of the two houses, this common text must be promulgated by the two tables. What is left of the common text will have to go to the CCJ, it will have to be admissible, it will have to go to the Special Commission to return to the Plenary for two votes”, declared Lira.

“All the amendments that have just been voted on in the Senate after the votes of the highlights, we will be taking notice of the highlights very calmly, very calmly, by the advisers of the two houses so that we can, in a joint manner, between the Senate and the Chamber to talk about the enactment of what is necessary and urgent,” he continued.

According to Lira, “the maximum effort possible” will be made to promulgate the text “as soon as possible” to allow for the payment of Auxílio Brasil, a social program that replaced Bolsa Família. The president of the Chamber also stated that the measure is also valid so that “the federal government’s budget is not fully used by court orders in the year 2022.”

Text changes

In search of greater support for the approval of the PEC dos Precatório in the plenary of the Senate, the rapporteur of the text, senator Fernando Bezerra (MDB-PE), conceded in some more points of the proposal. Among the main changes in the new opinion is the linking of all open fiscal space with the sub-ceiling for the payment of court orders to Auxílio Brasil and Social Security.

The measure will be applied annually to “surplus” resources by the limit on the payment of court orders until 2026. That is, for 5 years, the new social program and the security spending have a source of funding guaranteed by the limit on the payment of court orders.

The purpose is to ensure that funds cannot be used for other expenses, such as rapporteur amendments. “Thus, all the effort made by the National Congress in the search for resources will be linked to the most urgent social purposes in this moment of crisis”, says the text.

Last week, Bezerra had already brought changes in relation to the text that came from the Chamber, such as ensuring that all open space in the budget is linked to the payment of social assistance. In addition, it established the payment of R$ 400 from Auxílio Brasil as permanent.

Then, to facilitate approval by the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), where the text was approved on Tuesday (30), it removed the Fundef (Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Elementary Education and the Valorization of Teaching) from the spending ceiling.

These judicial debts with the states amount to around R$16 billion. Under the PEC, 40% of this amount will have to be paid in the first year.

Another important change was putting food court orders on the priority list for payment.

On the priority list for payments are those who will receive smaller amounts, up to R$ 66,000, people aged 60 or over and people with disabilities.

(*With information from Anna Russi and Bia Gurgel, from CNN)