Milei Deregulation Bill Stalls in Argentina Senate

South America · Economy

The Argentina deregulation bill at the heart of President Javier Milei’s reform drive has stalled in the Senate, a setback that lays bare how hard it is for him to turn campaign promises into law without a majority behind him.

A clean-up bill with a nickname

The measure has a curious name. Argentines call it the Ley Hojarasca, the fallen-leaves law, because the government says it is sweeping away dead matter, old rules left lying around the statute book for decades. Its formal title is the Repeal of Obsolete Legislation Act, and its job is to strike out or rewrite scores of laws that the administration argues have lost all purpose.

Some of the targets sound almost comic. The bill would scrap a rule requiring backpackers to carry a special permit to hitchhike, and another regulating the registration of carrier pigeons. But it also reaches into far weightier territory, touching old rules on the national promotion of Argentine music and film, and limits on foreign ownership of the media. That mix is exactly where the fight begins: the government calls the whole thing a tidy-up, while the opposition says heavier, more political changes are being smuggled in alongside the harmless relics.

Why this Argentina deregulation bill matters abroad

For a reader in London or Munich, the detail is less important than the test it represents. Milei was elected on a promise to shrink the Argentine state and free up the economy, and he has been unusually good at doing that by his own hand, signing decrees and ministry resolutions that need no vote in Congress. Only this week his government wiped out more than fifty leftover commercial rules by simple administrative order.

Laws are different. To repeal a law passed by Congress, the president needs Congress to agree, and there his party does not hold a majority in either chamber. The fallen-leaves project was meant to be the easy win, the warm-up act before the harder battles over labour rules, the tax code and a new penal code that Milei wants to fight later this year. If the government cannot pass the bill that even its own ministers describe as housekeeping, the bigger reforms suddenly look a good deal more distant.

The vote that did not happen

The lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, did its part on May 20, approving the project by 138 votes to 96 with nine abstentions. The government won that round by leaning on a coalition of allied blocs, including centre-right and provincial lawmakers who lined up behind it. The package was trimmed along the way, from an original 63 laws down to 59, after lobbying stripped out a few items, among them a clause that would have ended free parking for members of Congress.

The Senate was supposed to be where the government celebrated. Committees there had already signed off on the text, and ministers spoke openly of turning it into law before the end of the month. Then the plan came apart. Radical senators from the centre-right, normally reliable partners, asked for fresh revisions at the last moment. Their cooperation had become tangled up with a separate, tense negotiation over judicial appointments, and when that knot would not loosen, the deregulation vote was pushed aside. A companion bill on foreign ownership of farmland, another Milei priority, stalled in the same session.

What happens next

Because senators want to change the text rather than wave it through, the bill cannot simply become law from the Senate floor. Any amended version has to travel back to the lower house for another vote, and no one in the governing bloc will name a date. One official put it bluntly, saying that once a debate gets disorderly, everybody starts asking for something new. The government now plans to spend the coming days quietly persuading provincial governors to free up their senators when the bill does return.

None of this kills the project. Milei still commands a larger bloc than any first-term Argentine president in recent memory after his party’s strong showing in the October 2025 midterms, and his deregulation minister, Federico Sturzenegger, insists there are thousands more old laws he would like to clear. But the stall is a useful reminder for anyone weighing Argentine assets: the parts of the Milei programme that move by decree can be fast and dramatic, while the parts that need a vote will move at the pace of a Congress he does not fully control.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Ley Hojarasca?

It is an Argentine bill, formally the Repeal of Obsolete Legislation Act, that would strike out or rewrite 59 laws the government considers outdated. The nickname means fallen leaves, the dead matter ministers say they want to clear from the books.

Why has the bill stalled?

Allied centre-right senators asked for late changes, partly because the vote got entangled with a separate fight over judicial appointments. With no agreement in hand, the Senate shelved the floor vote and set no new date.

What does it mean for Milei’s wider agenda?

It signals that bigger reforms on labour, taxes and the penal code face a hard road through a Congress where the president lacks a majority. Measures he can enact by decree remain fast, but anything needing a vote depends on shifting alliances.

Connected Coverage

Milei’s Deregulation Hojarasca Push Targets “Obsolete” Argentine Laws

Milei Deregulation Axes Argentina Price Rules

Argentina Economy 2026: Milei, IMF, Inflation and What Comes Next