Brazil’s Congress Expands: 18 New Seats, Rising Costs, and Political Calculations

Brazil’s Senate has approved a plan to increase the number of federal deputies, the country’s national lawmakers, from 513 to 531.

This decision follows a Supreme Court order that told Congress to update how seats are divided among states, using the latest population numbers from the 2022 census.

The Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house, will review the proposal again before it becomes law. The main reason for this change is to make sure each state has the right number of representatives based on its population.

Some states, like Santa Catarina and Pará, will get four more deputies each. Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Rio Grande do Norte will get two more each, while Ceará, Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Paraná will each add one.

No state will lose any seats, even if its population has shrunk. Lawmakers say that the Chamber’s total budget will not go up between 2027 and 2030, even with more deputies.

The law requires that costs for the new deputies—like salaries, office expenses, travel, and housing—come from the existing budget, with only small adjustments for inflation.

Senators Warn Expansion of Deputies Will Inflate Public Spending

However, some senators disagree, saying that extra deputies will lead to higher costs, especially for office space, staff, and benefits. Estimates for these extra costs range widely, but even official budget offices say expenses will rise.

This change affects state governments, too. When a state gets more federal deputies, it also gets more state lawmakers, as required by Brazil’s Constitution. This will add even more to public spending.

The Supreme Court pushed for this update because Brazil’s Constitution says each state must have at least eight deputies and no more than seventy, and the numbers should match population shifts.

The last time Brazil changed the number of deputies for each state was in 1993, using much older census data. Most Brazilians do not support having more deputies, according to official surveys.

Many people worry about the cost and believe politicians are protecting their own interests by not reducing seats for states that have lost people.

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