House Ethics Committee members pledge to remain dysfunctional

The House Ethics Committee accepted disciplinary complaints against seven lawmakers on Tuesday, in what was its first meeting in 41 days. Some members made it clear that they did not want the committee to punish anyone.

Mário Heringer, a congressman representing Minas Gerais state, said: “We need to end the fighting and revenge [among politicians]. This is not the Revenge Committee.”

A member of the left-wing Democratic Labor Party (PDT), Mr. Heringer voted last year to acquit Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro — the third-eldest son of then-President Jair Bolsonaro — in a motion filed by the Workers’ Party. Eduardo was accused of slandering Senator Humberto Costa, calling him “Odebrecht’s Dracula,” a reference to his code name in a bribery spreadsheet revealed by the Car Wash investigation.

Because the Supreme Court shelved the investigation against Mr. Costa, the Workers’ Party asked the Ethics Committee to punish Congressman Bolsonaro. Mr. Heringer, who was assigned as the motion’s rapporteur, wrote that Mr. Bolsonaro’s speech was protected by parliamentary immunity.

Congressman Éder Mauro, a staunch pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker who is not a member of the Ethics Committee, nevertheless attended today’s session to ask lawmakers for “balance” and “serenity,” agreeing with Mr. Heringer that lawmakers should not seek “revenge.” Congressman Cabo Gilberto Silva added to the chorus: “This is the right place to punish lawmakers,” he said, as opposed to the courts.

One of the motions approved today was filed by four left-wing parties to impeach far-right Congressman Nikolas Ferreira, for what they allege to be transphobic behavior.

On International Women’s Day, Mr. Ferreira donned a blonde wig during a speech in the House and claimed he “felt” he was a woman, “Congresswoman Nicole.” He added that the left is trying to “impose” a false reality that robs women of their space in favor of “men who feel like they are women.” 

Twenty-seven-year-old Nikolas Ferreira was the best-voted lawmaker in 2022, with a record 1.4 million votes in his home state of Minas Gerais. He is what some U.S. feminists would call a “TERF.” Originally meaning trans-exclusionary radical feminist, the term has evolved to describe people who are not feminists, but who oppose transgender rights or are transphobic.

It is unlikely that Mr. Ferreira or his colleagues will face any significant punishment. The House Ethics Committee is one of the most dysfunctional in Congress. During the 2019-2022 term, it approved the impeachment of a single lawmaker: Flordelis, who had been indicted the year before for the murder of her own husband (she was convicted two years later).

The Ethics Committee also approved two separate motions to suspend Congressman Daniel Silveira for nine months. However, the punishments never took effect because House Speaker Arthur Lira did not bring them up for a vote on the House floor.

The committee approved a mere verbal admonition for Coronel Tadeu, who tore down a display that was part of a House exhibit during Brazil’s Black History Month. The committee also completely spared Eduardo Bolsonaro from punishment after he defended a new version of the AI-5, the harshest decree of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985).

The committee’s chair, Leur Lomanto Júnior, refused on Tuesday to set a date for the next meeting, saying that the House is busy with a series of parliamentary inquiries.

Congressman Ricardo Ayres said: “We are living in a very bad environment in the House (…) The population is disappointed with politics (…) It would have been different if the House Ethics Committee had worked harder in the past.” He is correct.

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