How changes to Brazil’s federal budget gave extra power to the House

In 2016, Congress ousted then-President Dilma Rousseff in a controversial impeachment trial after years of deteriorating relations between the government and lawmakers.

At the beginning of her term, which started in 2011, Ms. Rousseff rode a wave of popularity generated by positive macroeconomic results and her umbilical relationship with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who handpicked her as his successor and used his 80 percent-plus approval ratings to boost her profile. 

Fresh in office, Ms. Rousseff didn’t engage in what she called “petty negotiations” with congressmen — that is, earmarking chunks of the budget for projects of the lawmakers’ choosing, known as congressional budgetary grants.

But the huge popular demonstrations of 2013 and what was then the worst economic crisis in Brazil’s history wore down the government — and became increasingly scarce. She narrowly managed to win re-election in 2014 and quickly saw her congressional coalition fizzle away in her second term. By the time it came to the impeachment vote, only 137 of the lower house’s 513 members sided with her.

The ousting of Ms. Rousseff was a watershed moment for Brazilian politics, as from that moment on, Congress created mechanisms to gradually increase its own independence and leave the federal government more vulnerable. 

Two measures, approved in 2015 and 2019, made congressional budgetary grants mandatory, essentially giving them the legal right to yield control over chunks of the budget — with each lawmaker being granted equal amounts.

Budgetary grants are a constitutional provision to prevent the Executive branch from having complete control over the budget. Members of Congress can earmark portions of the budget to projects of interest to them, usually infrastructure or healthcare ventures in their constituencies.

Before the 2015 and 2019 reforms, members of Congress could only make spending suggestions, and it was up to the government to decide...