Pacheco advocates for an exception to the spending cap via provisional measure, if possible.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The president of the National Congress, Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), stated this Friday that exceptions to the spending cap in 2023 for payments such as Bolsa Família (a social welfare program) worth 600 reais could be authorized through a provisional measure, and not via a Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC).

Pacheco, like other senators, is evaluating the technical feasibility and legal viability of issuing a provisional measure, to be enacted in the early stages of the next government, opening extraordinary credit to support campaign spending promises made outside the spending cap.

"In order to put into practice everything that the new government proposes, including a R$600 Brazil Aid program, and the correction of aspects in the areas of health, education, culture, environment, etc., it is natural that there will be a need to relativize the public spending cap," Pacheco told Estúdio i, on Globo News.

"If there is an alternative through a provisional measure with extraordinary credit so that all this can be implemented, then obviously not amending the Constitution would be a better option. But if the technical experts and consultants recommend that the necessary legal certainty is a constitutional amendment, unfortunately we will deem this further constitutional amendment necessary for the good of the Brazilian people," he added.

Representatives of the incoming government, coordinated by the vice-president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin, have already met this week with the rapporteur of the Annual Budget Law for 2023, Senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI).

At the time, they announced their intention to authorize an exception to the spending cap through a Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC), which would serve to adjust the budget and fulfill the promises of the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, such as maintaining the R$600 Brazil Aid payment and adjusting the minimum wage above inflation. There is also an intention to cover existing gaps in the budget, such as the adjustment of school meal values.

If it is not possible to amend a provisional measure, Pacheco said, Congress will be "willing" to support the transition amendment, as it has been called.

"It is necessary to have a diagnosis of what is actually needed in budgetary terms beyond the public spending cap in order to design these public policies," said Pacheco.

"From our side, obviously, given this diagnosis, be it a technical diagnosis, without budgetary extravagances—we cannot allow spending beyond what is actually necessary to implement these programs, especially the social program—the National Congress will be fully willing to consider a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) in this regard," he added.

Pacheco assessed that if the option is a Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC), it is "perfectly possible" that it could already be under consideration in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

The proposed constitutional amendment (PEC), however, depends on an agreement in the National Congress, already coordinated with the vote on the 2023 Budget. The idea, according to one of the members of the transition team, is that both the PEC and the Annual Budget Law will be ready for voting "in the first or second week of December".

Following the talks in Congress, Alckmin is scheduled to speak with Lula next Monday to discuss the necessary figures for implementing the new government's plans. There is also a chance that Lula will travel to Brasília to speak with Pacheco, the Speaker of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, Representative Celso Sabino (União-PA).

The idea is that the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment) could be presented as early as next Tuesday, according to federal deputy Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS).

RE-ELECTION

Asked this Friday if he intends to run again for President of the House, Pacheco said he would accept the position if that is the wish of his party.

Even before Lula's victory at the polls, Pacheco was already at the center of a movement among centrist and left-wing senators to secure his re-election as head of the Senate and the National Congress.

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