Sarney: Congress will meet deadline for new FPE (Fund for Participation of States and Municipalities)
When asked if the new deadline would be sufficient for voting on the State Participation Fund (FPE), the Senate President, José Sarney, recalled that in December, during the last Senate session, the bill was already on the plenary agenda with a request for urgency. "I don't see why we can't resolve this even in February," he said.
Karine Melo
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia - The president of the National Congress, Senator José Sarney (PMDB-AP), said today (25) that the Legislature will be able to meet the deadline set yesterday (25) by the acting president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Ricardo Lewandowski, for the approval of new rules for the distribution of the State Participation Fund (FPE).
According to Minister Lewandowski, the current rules for distributing the FPE (Fund for Participation of States and Municipalities) will be extended for another five months. Congress is under pressure due to a Supreme Court decision in 2010, which declared the current rule unconstitutional and gave the Legislative Branch until the end of 2012 to approve a new complementary law on the subject, which did not happen.
When asked if the new deadline would be sufficient for the FPE vote, Sarney recalled that, in December, during the last Senate session, the bill was already on the plenary agenda with a request for urgency and that the proposal is already in the final stages of adjustments. "I don't see why we can't resolve this even in February, if we have some goodwill from the parliamentary groups," he said.
The Supreme Court's decision, which still needs to be confirmed by the full Court, was prompted by a lawsuit filed this week by the governors of Bahia, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, and Maranhão. The FPE (Fund for Participation of States and Municipalities) amount to R$ 74 billion for 2013.
On the eve of the election for the new Senate leadership, scheduled for February 1st, José Sarney also commented on his final days as president of the House. He said he is "happy" to see the day he leaves office approaching. "It's a very heavy workload, a House with complex administration. I believe that today we will hand over the Senate in a very well-organized administrative state," he said.
Sarney is in his second consecutive term as president of the Senate. In his first term (2009-2011), he faced the scandal of secret acts at the beginning of his administration. At the time, a series of administrative measures in effect in the House, such as the appointment of relatives of parliamentarians and the granting of financial benefits to employees, were not officially published. The crisis threatened Sarney's mandate, and he even became the target of proceedings for breach of parliamentary decorum.
In total, José Sarney presided over the Senate for four terms. When asked if he would miss the "chair" of president, he was direct. "As a rule, when I leave office, I don't look back."