New leader of government in Chamber of Deputies begins negotiations

President Dilma Rousseff named veteran congressman Arlindo Chinaglia (PT-SP) the new leader of the government in the Chamber of Deputies. He has been president of the Chamber, leader of the government and, last year, was the chief handler of the government’s budget bill (“relator-geral”).

The general opinion in Congress was satisfaction with the new leader because everyone has to admit he is a very experienced congressman.

Chinaglia says he will discuss the controversial issue of temporary measures (“medidas provisórias – MP”) with party leaders and the president of the Lower House, Marco Maia (PT-RS), in light of last week’s Supreme Court decision and the Supreme Court’s immediate reversal of that decision regarding the proper legislative process for approving MPs.

The court ruled that an MP was unconstitutional because it had not gone through a congressional committee. The quick reversal came when it became apparent that dozens (perhaps hundreds) of MPs would be invalidated by the decision (including some very important ones).

Chinaglia declared he did not see any problem with having MPs go through hearings before committees, but added that he wanted to discuss the matter with other congressional leaders.