Pedagogical act signals the dissatisfaction of senators with the short deadlines for the analysis of Provisional Measures
The President of Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, made a commitment to resolve an issue that has long bothered the colleagues who elected him: the deadline that ends up for the House to analyze Provisional Measures. According to him, there are three alternatives to solve the problem, the first of which is to approve a PEC changing the deadlines for analysis and validity of MPs, a complicated task given the difficulties imposed by the pandemic and the quantity of materials considered to be the most important stops in the National Congress. The second is to try to get the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, commit to approve the Provisional Measures more quickly, which would depend on an agreement between all the leaders of the House. Meanwhile, the third proposal, as Pacheco explains, is to give a ‘pedagogical signaling’. “The third path, which would be the most unpleasant, would be if no path is taken from the first two, unfortunately, fail to appreciate the provisional measure and allow it to lapse. There it will be something pedagogical so that you can then get the first or the second path accomplished. ”
The Provisional Measures are edited by the President of the Republic and need to be approved by a mixed commission and by the plenary of the Chamber and the Senate within a period of up to 120 days – if it does not expire. Normally, the first two stages – the commission and the plenary of the Chamber – end up taking a large part of that period, and the text often reaches the Senate on the verge of expiring – leaving little time for the House’s parliamentarians to analyze. In 2013, the then president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, decided that he would no longer accept MPs who arrived home with less than seven days to lose their validity. Currently, senators have been forced to give up proposing changes and end up agreeing with the texts approved by deputies simply to prevent the Provisional Measures from losing their validity.
* With information from reporter Antônio Maldonado
