Congress is expected to vote on the budget on Tuesday.
The vote could take place after almost two months of practically suspended parliamentary activities; the impasse that prevented consideration of the matter last year was a decision by Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux, who ruled that the voting on presidential vetoes should follow chronological order.
Iolando Lourenço
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – The first major clash this year in the National Congress will be the attempt to vote on the General Budget of the Union for 2013, which should have been approved at the end of last year. The president of the House, Senator Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), summoned deputies and senators for a session of Parliament on Tuesday (19) to discuss and vote on the budget.
The vote may take place after almost two months of practically suspended parliamentary activities: the legislative recess was from December 18th to February 1st, followed by the Carnival recess. Therefore, the National Congress is only expected to truly begin its legislative work this year on Tuesday, when the voting sessions start.
The government insists on the need to approve the budget proposal to enable investment actions and to prevent the public machine from being paralyzed. This is because the Budget Guidelines Law, approved last year, only allows the use of one-twelfth per month of the proposed budget for operating expenses and mandatory constitutional transfers.
The impasse that prevented the budget from being considered last year and in the first week of February was the vote on President Dilma Rousseff's vetoes regarding the distribution of oil royalties. In Tuesday's session, those in favor of overturning the vetoes will again try to hinder the budget's approval, arguing that more than 3 presidential vetoes currently on the Congressional agenda must first be voted on.
Last year, responding to a question from parliamentarians from Rio de Janeiro, Minister Luiz Fux of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled that the voting on vetoes should follow chronological order. Therefore, the vetoes regarding royalties could only be considered after all previous vetoes had been voted on.
Opposition parties, as well as parliamentarians from the government's base who favor overturning the royalties vetoes, want all presidential vetoes to be considered before the budget vote. To ensure the budget is approved on Tuesday, government leaders are mobilizing their allies to attend the voting session.
The opposition promises to obstruct proceedings, but of the 513 deputies and 81 senators, the majority belong to parties supporting the government. In the Chamber of Deputies, for example, opposition parties together have fewer than 90 votes. In the Senate, the proportion is similar to that of the Chamber.
Editing: Nadia Franco