Alcolumbre remembers lira-pacheco clash and wants ‘urgent return’ of mixed commissions

Elected this Saturday, 1st, for a new term at the head of the Federal Senate, Senator David Alcolumbre (Union-AP) resumed a theme that took his predecessor, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), and former mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), to enter a war of war in 2023: the rite to analyze government provisional measures (MPs).

In his speech before the vote, alcohubre, elected following 73 votes, said it was “urgent” the return of the mixed committees to evaluate the measures sent by the government.

“The legislative process of provisional measures also needs to be resumed urgently. The mixed committees are mandatory by constitutional command. Suppressing or neglecting them is not only wrong from the point of view of the process: it is a reduction in the role of the Federal Senate, ”he said.

The rite of processing to which the now new president referred was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), when proposals from the Executive Power were voted directly in the plenary of the two legislative houses, to give speed to the process.

As the Constitution determines, the provisional measures adopted by the President of the Republic must be analyzed by a mixed committee, made up of 12 deputies and 12 senators, designated by the president of Congress, before they go to vote in the plenary.

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In practice, the rapporteur of provisional measures was sometimes in charge of a senator, sometimes of a deputy, in a relay. With the change, Lira saw more accumulated power in her hands. First, with the right to indicate the rapporteur of all MPs, who, as a rule, pass the House first and go to the Senate review. In addition, it also became his prerogative to guide the processing of MPs without the interference of the Senate.

The case became an impasse in February 2023, when Pacheco wanted to resume the pre-standard model, but Lira proposed that the rite was definitively changed. According to the Congress website, 22 mixed committees to analyze provisional measures of 2024 are awaiting installation.

In a news conference after being elected, Alcolumbre criticized the “lack of communication” of the presidents of both homes for the past four years. “(The distance) in a way weakened the legislature. I am neither criticizing neither Arthur nor Rodrigo. I’m making a realization that we all know, ”he said.

The new president said that, in the new processing regime, the senators were called “45 minutes of the second half”, and that they were unable to eventually improve the measures. As a rule, they are valid with force of law as soon as the President of the Republic decrees them, but have 120 days to be validated by Congress and definitively converted into ordinary law.

“It is not and never will be correct a unilateral decision of a power that is bicameral end up taking the autonomy and authority of the Senate,” he said.