Working groups in Brazil’s House have doubled. And that’s a problem

Midway through March, House Speaker Arthur Lira established a working group with legislators and members of the judicial system to discuss the adoption of a semi-presidential system in the country, similar to what France uses. There appears to be no demand for the reform among Brazilians, who voted against such a change in two plebiscites, in 1963 and 1993. 

Instead, the working group is more a representation of Arthur Lira’s own preferences. The Speaker has been a strong advocate for the semi-presidential system in the past. 

Interestingly, the 124-page statute that guides the legislative process within Brazil’s House of Representatives does not mention the term “working group” at all. In fact, nowhere in the document can one find a provision that authorizes the House Speaker to create these spaces to debate high-profile or controversial issues and bills. 

However, these informal institutions are pervasive in Brazil’s House: in the last three and half years, successive House Speakers Rodrigo Maia and Arthur Lira created nine and 13 of them, respectively. The total of 22 is twice the number of working groups set up over the previous four years. 

To better understand the role of these institutions in Brazil’s lawmaking process, The Brazilian Report analyzed existing records of how they function, published on the House’s website. We also interviewed Congresspeople and experts on the House’s statute. The overall analysis suggests that working groups, which do not exist on paper as per the House statute, can be problematic.

While they can be used to reach political consensus on controversial issues or improve the quality of bills through focused discussions, they disregard party representation rules and often lack transparency. Moreover, they have often been used to serve House speakers’ own agendas.

Lira, the Almighty Speaker

To begin with, working group members are handpicked by the House speaker. This means that, when appointing members, the Speaker does not take into account the party proportionality rule, according to which parties and party blocks must be proportionality represented in all committees. Moreover, the Speaker chooses the group’s rapporteur, whose report does not require universal consent. 

The Brazilian Report summarized data on working groups between 2003 and 2022. The number of groups created by congressional sessions has increased about seven times over the period. The percentage of these groups that discuss specific bills has also increased from 33 percent in the 52th congressional session to 50 percent in the current 56th session.

This suggests that working groups have been increasingly performing functions that are similar...