Legislation
National Congress session on Brazilian President’s vetoes is postponed
By James - 29 April 2024
The session of the National Congress that would have analyzed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva‘s vetoes to proposals approved by the Legislature was cancelled due to a lack of agreement among party leaders. The joint meeting between federal deputies and senators, scheduled for Wednesday night (April 24), was rescheduled to take place between May 7 and 9.
“In fact, there was no minimum consensus regarding all the projects and vetoes, or better saying, in this Congress session. So, we are giving this additional time for the leaders to negotiate as many agreements as possible, especially regarding the vetoes of the Budgetary Guidelines Law and the Annual Budget Law,” explained the President of the Senate and the Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco in a statement to press.
According to the official news agency of the Brazilian government Agência Brasil among the items on the agenda were vetoes related to the bill that restricts temporary prisoner releases and a bill that blocked R$5.6 billion in parliamentary amendments. It was expected that if these items went to a vote, the government would suffer a defeat and the presidential vetoes would be overturned.
After announcing the postponement of the session, Pacheco noted that the dates of May 7 and 9 would be final, with no possibility of further extension. A total of 32 vetoes were on the agenda for this session. A veto occurs when the President of the Republic refuses, in whole or in part, a bill approved by the National Congress. To override a veto, the votes of 257 deputies and 41 senators are required.
Pacheco had previously stated that Congress would have been able to convene in a joint session to decide on the vetoes pending analysis this month. The list includes President Lula’s vetoes to online gambling Law 14,790. The law was sanctioned and published in the Official Gazette of the Union on December 30, 2023, with vetoes on certain parts of the text.
The original bill provided that prizes up to BRL 2,112 (the limit of the lowest Personal Income Tax bracket) would be exempt from taxation but this was vetoed by the President. The change was made so that the Federal Government would not promote “Income Tax taxation different from that applied in other lottery modalities, thus establishing a tax distinction without plausible justification.”
