Brazil’s Senate Approves Base Text of Welfare Reform in First Round Vote

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After almost four hours of debate, the Senate approved, in the first round, the basic text of the proposed the Constitutional amendment (PEC) reforming the welfare system.

At 10:51 PM, the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, announced the result: 56 votes in favor, 19 against and no abstention. It took 49 votes, the equivalent to three-fifths of the senators plus one, to approve the text.

Alcolumbre intended to complete the processing of the basic text and its amendments by 10 PM. However, the number of senators who signed up to speak, mostly from the opposition, delayed the start of the vote.

The session began at 4 PM, with the vote on other matters, but the debate on the social welfare PEC basic text did not start until 6:50 PM.

Shortly before closing the vote, the president of the Senate said the reform would help the country regain investment capacity.

“The vote on this reform is a vote on the conscience of a country that needs to be reformed. Without any doubt, this is the most important reform of the state because, without it, we would not be able to do others. The Brazilian State is captive, with no investment conditions. The Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, show greatness, public spirit and the true meaning of democracy,” he said.

The rapporteur of the PEC, Senator Tasso Jereissati, said that the reform is unpopular but necessary to rebalance public accounts and allow the return of federal investments in the coming years.

“Brazil, the way it is now, in approximately two years’ time, if we don’t implement the social welfare reform, will get to a point, already in 2021, at which the federal government will not have even a penny for investment. We are going to enter an era in which all those speeches made here and those desires dreamed of here surrounding education, health and employment cannot be achieved or there will not even be an attempt to achieve them,” said Jereissati.

Opposition have Submitted Amendments

The senators are now beginning to discuss the ten amendments put forward by backbenchers. Most are suppressive – they remove clauses from the text approved by the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) – and require 49 votes from the 81 senators to be approved.

However, opposition parties have submitted amendments to change the basic text, which would require the return of the PEC to the Chamber of Deputies.

The PEC must be approved in a second round to be enacted, after which the new rules on retirement, pensions and aid will become effective.

Earlier, Alcolumbre said he intends to conclude the second round vote before October 10th , but to this end, the federal government and the states need to reach an agreement on the regulation of the revenue sharing from oil exploration with states and municipalities.

Changes like the one that re-includes the states and municipalities in the Social Welfare reform are to be processed in a parallel PEC, which is still pending in the CCJ. According to Alcolumbre, the parallel text, which needs to return to the House of Representatives, proceeds with 15 to 20 days of delay in relation to the main PEC.

The expectation, said the president of the Senate, is to vote the parallel PEC at the end of October.