Congress moves to speed up processing time of government decrees

In an important political move, the heads of both of Brazil’s congressional houses have decided to radically shorten the deadline for processing provisional decrees issued by President Jair Bolsonaro to confront the Covid-19 pandemic. Current legislation demands a maximum period of 120 days for Congress to approve these decrees before they expire, but a newly approved rule cuts this term down to just 14 days.

Rodrigo Maia and Davi Alcolumbre, speakers of the House and Senate, agreed that decrees would have nine days for analysis in the lower house, followed by five days in the Senate. If the upper house were to make any changes to the legislation in question, the House would then get a further two days to review these alterations.

In a recent interview with TV news channel GloboNews, Mr. Maia made it clear that this quick turnover would aim to let Congress “correct” any excesses of the provisional decrees issued by the president.

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