There are no more secret budgets. Only amendments from the rapporteur.

By Tereza Cruvinel

On Monday, when the Supreme Court resumes the trial interrupted on Thursday night, there will no longer be a secret budget, but rather rapporteur amendments, the RP-9, whose requesting parliamentarians will be disclosed. Resources will no longer be allocated solely to parliamentarians from the government's base, as occurred during the Bolsonaro era, and will instead be distributed according to a criterion of proportionality to the size of the party blocs in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. This will fulfill the constitutional mandate of impartiality.

This is what Resolution 003/2022, approved on Friday, states, following the impasse created on Thursday when the judgment ended 5-4 in favor of Justice Rosa Weber's vote, calling for an end to the practice because it violates constitutional principles such as transparency and impartiality, among others. The four dissenting votes had only advocated for corrections to the serious distortions, not to say immoralities.

The Resolution will give the ministers who have not yet voted, Ricardo Lewandowski and Gilmar Mendes, arguments to follow the dissenting opinions, forming a majority in favor of the survival of the rapporteur's amendments, now under new rules. And with that, another threat of conflict between the branches of government will be overcome, and the main obstacle to the approval of the transition amendment will be removed. It will not have been an optimal solution, but the possible and necessary one. The only one that would avoid the worst.

The Workers' Party (PT) and supporters of the future Lula government have already received criticism for supporting the Centrão's (Centrist bloc) saving grace resolution. After all, Lula promised to end what he called the "excess." But the alternative for the future base was to support the new rules or clash with the conservative majority in Congress, compromising Lula's governability even before his inauguration. Gilmar Mendes and Lewandowski, when requesting the postponement of the trial on Thursday, said exactly that between the lines: they needed to buy time because governability was at stake. "We need to take into account our democracy at the stage it is in," said Gilmar. And the Congress was given the power to approve the resolution.

There was no other solution because, once power is won, no one relinquishes it. And here it is necessary to consider the type of presidentialism we have, dependent on building alliances that guarantee a majority for the elected president, and the evolution of budgetary practices.

The 1946 Constitution guaranteed Congress some participation in the distribution of public resources, that is, in the shaping of the Union Budget. After all, congressmen, like the president, are also elected by the people. Then came the dictatorship and muzzled Congress, taking away, among other powers, the power to amend and alter the annual budget proposal. With redemocratization and the 1988 Constitution, Congress regained the prerogative to amend the Budget and instituted individual, caucus, and committee amendments.

Power was gained, but for almost the entire New Republic, however, the amendments were merely permissive. The government approved the ones it wanted, almost always favoring its allies. When Eduardo Cunha, president of the Chamber of Deputies, began to harass Dilma Rousseff, he had PEC 358 approved in 2015, making the execution of individual amendments mandatory. Power was gained again, but Congress wanted more. In 2019, Amendment 100 was approved, making caucus amendments mandatory as well. And that year the spree with rapporteur amendments began.

They always existed, under the name RP-9. But the amount was much more modest and served for the rapporteur to make adjustments when finalizing the budget. Bolsonaro, elected without any parliamentary support, surrendered to the Centrão (a group of center-right political parties), which set up the scheme with the Speaker of the House, Artur Lira, as the main architect. The amount reserved for RP-9 for 2021 increased dramatically, and the rapporteur began to accept informal requests from Lira's allies and the Government for the allocation of resources to works and projects, without disclosing their names. Thus arose what came to be called the secret budget, following a report by Estadão (a Brazilian newspaper).

This was the greatest achievement of Congress in its march on the budget. Obviously, it wouldn't relinquish the power it had gained. And Lula could only try to end the scheme if he had a solid majority in both Houses. Without that, he would be banging his head against a brick wall and would begin his government with wounded hands.

The Supreme Court's ruling came late but helped Lula. In a few hours, Congress approved the Resolution. There are still some things out of place, such as reserving 15% of the resources for the leadership of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the budget currently being voted on, this will represent control over approximately R$ 1,4 billion. That's a lot of power for the presidents of the two Houses and other members of their leadership. But before, Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco had much more control. It was the best that could be done.

From now on, we shouldn't talk about a secret budget. The secrecy has been lifted. There will be the rapporteur's amendments, or RP-9, and we will know the names of the authors. Other adjustments may come, but these are here to stay. What Lula should try to avoid is that they also become mandatory.

With this imbroglio resolved, the path is almost clear for the approval of the transition amendment, but agreements will still have to be made with Lira and other groups regarding the ministry. It's quite possible that we'll reach Christmas with everything resolved.