Brazilian government downgrades BR do Mar urgency status in congress

A Proposal to encourage coastal shipping was approved last year by the Chamber of Deputies; senators may vote on the text in May.

The government has decided to withdraw the emergency measure to process the proposal to encourage coastal shipping, known as BR do Mar. The message was sent to Congress on Tuesday, 27, and accepted by the Senate president. The text was approved last year by the Chamber of Deputies and is currently awaiting approval by the senators.

The political turmoil caused by the Congressional Investigative Commission on the handling of the Covid-19 crisis and the budget dispute ended up decreasing the priority of the Ministry of Infrastructure project and effectively relegating it to the ‘Senate refrigerator.’

Despite the Executive branch’s efforts, the text will be voted on in May by senators, based on an agreement between the leaders.

The government sent the proposal to Congress in August last year on an urgent basis, which imposes a 45-day voting period. This would theoretically lock the agenda. Even so, the proposal was only approved by the Chamber in December. In the Senate, there was a recount of the deadline, and the time window for urgent voting expired on April 23rd. As a result, the withdrawal of this special regime in the course of the project was already discussed between the government and senators.

The Senate minority leader had already signaled last week that this would be the future path of the BR do Mar project. According to the senator, the removal of urgency has already been established. The expectation is that the proposal will be voted on in the coming weeks.

In the same context, the rapporteur needs to have more time since he has received several suggestions for amendments from colleagues. The government proposal competes with another idea of ​​opening the cabotage market in the Senate, defended by Senator Kátia Abreu.

“(Fernando) Bezerra himself (government leader in the Senate) put forth this possibility. Something like ‘as long as everyone agrees that the project will be on the agenda in two or three weeks, we will remove the urgency here, and the rapporteur can have time to work,’ ”reported the minority leader last Thursday.

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