How effective are Brazil’s congressional hearings committees?

The Senate’s newly-created hearings committee to investigate the government’s pandemic response is set to formally elect its chairman and rapporteur this week, officially kicking off the investigation process. Senators critical of the Jair Bolsonaro administration will take key spots, with Randolfe Rodrigues to be appointed deputy chair, and seasoned operator Renan Calheiros as rapporteur. These early moves boosted the hopes of anti-Bolsonaro observers regarding the committee’s ability to hold the federal government accountable. 

But how effective will the investigation be? The country’s past experience with congressional hearings committees (known in Brazil as CPIs) suggests the path to accountability is by no means a straight one.

Historian and legislative consultant Marcos Evandro Cardoso Santi has written extensively on the topic of CPIs in Brazil, including a thesis investigating the role of these committees in Brazilian politics since redemocratization in 1985. Mr. Santi concludes there are three main roadblocks for CPIs to fulfill their purpose of investigating and ascertaining facts involving those...