Dino rejects the Chamber’s allegations about amendments and maintains institutional impasse

Author of the decision that suspended the payment of R$ 4.2 billion in parliamentary amendments, the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Flávio Dino stated yesterday that the Chamber of Deputies did not present the necessary information to unlock the resources and reiterated the questions and criticisms made prior to the transfers. The matter is a reason for institutional impasse and a clash between the Legislature and the Judiciary.

Earlier yesterday, the Chamber’s Attorney’s Office had sent a document to the STF in which it stated that it had complied with the Court’s determinations and requested the release of the resources. The House’s argument was that parliamentarians acted in “good faith”, respecting current legislation and the Executive’s legal interpretations, and that the approval of the amendments occurred in a transparent manner. The previous day, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), had already expressed himself in the same sense. He met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and party leaders.

Dino, however, considered this first response from the deputies insufficient. “Regrettably, the essential information does not emerge from the petition filed today (yesterday) by the Chamber of Deputies,” he said. Given the lack of “essential” data, the minister had granted another deadline for the Chamber to comment – ​​the House had until 8pm yesterday to deliver new responses.

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At night, the Chamber informed the Supreme Court that it acted “under legal guidance” from Lula government departments when indicating the R$4.2 billion in amendments sponsored by 17 bench leaders. He also defended the legality of the procedure. “Hence the strangeness that only the Chamber is participating at this moment in institutional dialogue with the Supreme Court, for the purpose of improving the budgetary process of parliamentary amendments, when the competence for the matter lies with the National Congress, when the Senate adopted a strictly identical procedure to that of the Chamber of Deputies and when both Houses limited themselves to following prior technical guidelines from the Executive Branch, for the purpose of merely forwarding indications that are not even mandatory”, says the statement signed by the Chamber’s Advocacy.

According to the document, legal guidance came from the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Management, in addition to the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, the Civil House and the Federal Attorney General’s Office. “If there were no guidance in question, there would not be any official of indication.”

SUSPENSION

Last Monday, Dino blocked R$4.2 billion in commission amendments – payment was expected by the end of the year – based on the understanding that they did not meet the transparency and traceability criteria and failed to comply with STF decisions . He made the unblocking conditional on the identification of the parliamentarians responsible for the nominations.

Yesterday, when demanding new explanations, Dino rejected the Chamber’s argument about the distinction between “approval” and “indication” of amendments. According to him, there is no normative basis that justifies the claim that the allocation of resources by a permanent committee of the House does not require formal approval.

“I remember that there are no ‘leader amendments’ in the Brazilian legal system. The Federal Constitution deals exclusively with ‘individual amendments’ and ‘bench amendments’, while ‘commission amendments’ are regulated by Resolution No. 001/2006, of the National Congress, and, more recently, by Complementary Law No. 210/2024”, he stated.

The amendments blocked by Dino are of the RP-8 type, known as committee amendments. These amendments are indicated by one or more parliamentarians to each standing committee, which approves them. However, the set of amendments approved by the Chamber and sent on the 12th to the federal government – ​​responsible for executing the resources – does not identify the parliamentarians who made the nominations. Instead, 17 bench leaders appear in the letter as those responsible for the amendments.

In the first document sent yesterday to the Supreme Court, Lira had already said that the procedure adopted, with the signature of 17 bench leaders, was considered legal and supported by bodies and ministries of the Lula government. The Chamber highlighted that the letter sent to the Executive ratified the indications for amendments already approved by the committees, and did not serve to “create or approve new amendments in the absence of the committees”.

‘LEADER AMENDMENT’

For Dino, however, this practice of “sponsorship” is unconstitutional, as it creates a new modality, “leader amendments”, which was rejected by the minister. Furthermore, according to the judge, the device makes it difficult to identify the true authors of the amendments, violating the principles of transparency and traceability.

“The end of the financial year is approaching, without the Chamber providing the essential information, insisting on interpretations that are incompatible with the constitutional principles of transparency and traceability, imperative for the regular application of public resources.”

The STF had authorized the implementation of the amendments at the beginning of December on the condition that payments followed rules of transparency and public control. The Chamber, however, maintained the sponsorship regime through bench leaders, in a mechanism that continued to hide parliamentarians behind the nominations. By order of Dino, the Federal Police opened an investigation to investigate the “capture” of amendments.

GRANJA DO TORTO

Just yesterday, Lula met with deputy Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), favorite to succeed Lira in command of the Chamber in 2025. The meeting, which was not on the president’s official agenda, dealt with several issues, including the impasse of the amendments involving the STF and Congress, according to Estadão/Broadcast.

The meeting was held at Granja do Torto, one of the official residences of the Presidency. In addition to Motta, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, and the government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), participated. The atmosphere at the meeting was friendly. Since Lira announced Motta as his successor, Lula had not invited the man from Paraíba to a private meeting.