U.S. ambassador launches bilateral working groups in Brazil’s Congress

U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Elizabeth Bagley on Wednesday participated in the joint launch of the U.S.-Brazil parliamentary groups in the House and Senate for the current legislative session.

The Brazilian Congress has dozens of bilateral groups with several countries, which do not meet regularly. For example, the Senate’s group on relations with Argentina held its last meeting in March 2020, and the group concerning relations with China met in May after a hiatus of almost four years. In April, senators created a group to improve relations with Ukraine, which has only met once so far. Similar groups exist in the lower house.

Senator Veneziano Vital do Rêgo, the head of the legislative group in the upper house, said in an interview that Brazil and the U.S. have a “close, bicentennial” and “intimate” relationship. 

Ambassador Bagley told lawmakers that the U.S. is expanding trade and investment that currently supports more than 500,000 jobs throughout Brazil. She added that the U.S. wants to ensure that democratic values are upheld. In an earlier speech at Fourth of July celebrations in Brasília, she compared the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington D.C. to the January 8, 2023 riots in Brazil.

Two weeks ago, five Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives visited Brazil. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked Brazilian lawmakers to be included in future discussions on the climate crisis.

• #congress
• #diplomacy
• #u.s.