It has been less than six months since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to Brazil’s presidency after narrowly defeating far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. So far, however, his administration has gotten off to a slow start as he faces strong headwinds.
The new government had no honeymoon period, facing a putschist revolt just seven days after inauguration day. It has struggled to whip up a solid coalition in a deeply conservative Congress, relying on the massive concession of budgetary grants and the support of House Speaker Arthur Lira to pass legislation. And now it risks having the very structure of the administration unilaterally disfigured by Congress.
An initiative backed by the rural caucus in the House could strip the Environment Ministry of many of its powers, thanks to an oddity in the Brazilian political system.
The Constitution gives the president the power to organize the federal administration as he or she sees fit, providing it does not increase public spending or create or eliminate government agencies.
When presidents want to change the shape of their administrations, they do so by means of so-called provisional decrees. These are a central part of lawmaking in Brazil. Issued by the president, they take effect immediately but must be approved by Congress within 120 days or they expire — and the government cannot issue a similar decree within the same six-month legislative period.
Lawmakers can change the content of provisional decrees. However, when it comes to those that merely alter the cabinet’s composition, Congress would typically rubber-stamp the government’s wishes without fuss — that is, until very recently.
Congressman Isnaldo Bulhões, the rapporteur of the decree on the government’s structure, proposed a redistribution of responsibilities among cabinet ministries — many of which would severely alter the government’s ability to carry out its environmental policies.
His proposal would transfer the National Water Agency to the Regional Development Ministry and the database for environmental control of rural properties (CAR) to the Management Ministry, while control over national waste management systems would go to the Cities Ministry.
The power to demarcate indigenous lands would go from the Indigenous Peoples Ministry to the Justice...
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