Good morning! Today, we talk about the Lula administration’s latest defeats in Congress. A botched South American summit. And data on corporate credit.
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Weeping and gnashing of teeth in the House
The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had another dreadful day in Congress. By a comfortable majority, the House passed a bill to restrict the rights of indigenous groups to protected land — a big blow to the government’s environmental agenda.
- Meanwhile, the administration failed to approve Lula’s January 1 provisional decree on the structure of the government itself. A House floor vote was postponed until this morning — but the clock is ticking.
- Congress must approve the decree by tomorrow, or it will expire and the cabinet will legally return to the composition it had on December 31, the last day of the Jair Bolsonaro administration.
- However, it is a kind of lose-lose situation for the government, as a congressional committee has already deformed the executive measure. Even if it survives, the decree — as it...