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Marcelo Castro revealed that he intends to keep the amount of almost R$20 billion in control of the Legislature; Federal Supreme Court judged the 'secret budget' as unconstitutional

 

By Jovem Pan 12/19/2022 6:31 pm - Updated on 12/19/2022 7:14 pm

    

TON MOLINA/FOTOARENA/ESTADÃO CONTENT - 11/03/2022

Senator Marcelo Castro

Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI) is a senator and the current rapporteur for the 2023 federal budget

Hours after the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to decide that the rapporteur’s amendments – popularly called the ‘secret budget’ – were unconstitutional, Congress began to conjecture ways to keep the almost R$ 20 billion in control of the Legislative Power. According to the budget rapporteur, senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), the redistribution of these resources will allocate the amounts to bench amendments and commission amendments. “As rapporteur, I can only allocate these resources to meet requests. And the requests I have today are the bench and commission amendments that have not yet been met. I'm going to put this R$ 19.4 billion preferably in commission amendments. It has a commission for education, social assistance, health, infrastructure, sports, tourism, etc. The presidents of the commissions could decide where the amendments go”, said the politician. When asked if the proposal raised could not raise doubts about the lack of transparency in the division of amendments, Castro pointed out that the Supreme Court overturned the rapporteur's funds even with the discussion in Congress for possible improvements in the distribution of resources. “The Supreme Court did not accept the criteria that we established”, he pointed out.

 

 

At the end of last week, the National Congress approved a draft resolution that intended to establish rules for the distribution of rapporteur amendments in order to avoid the end of the mechanism and the middle of voting on the constitutionality of rapporteur amendments in the STF. In new parameters, the parliamentarians intended to distribute the nominations proportionally to the size of the party benches. In the Chamber of Deputies, the score was 328 votes to 66, with 4 abstentions. While among senators, the matter received 44 votes in favor, 20 against and 2 abstentions to the matter, which defines criteria for distribution and allocation of resources touched by these amendments. The attempt, however, was in vain as Justice Ricardo Lewandowski voted and formed a majority for the Supreme Court to declare the unconstitutionality of the rapporteur's amendments. In his justification, the magistrate – who voted along with the understanding of the rapporteur Rosa Weber, Edson Fachin, Luis Roberto Barroso and Luiz Fux – pointed out that, despite the advances, “all the necessary measures were not adopted for adequate transparency”. “Although the distribution is less arbitrary, it will not be equal as in individual amendments, some will continue to receive more or less and the leader will be able to distribute [resources], opening spaces for political bargains”, he concluded.