Brazil's new Forest Code: urgency aproved. Senate vote on Tuesday

In spite of the efforts of the government’s leader in the Senate, Romero Jucá, voting on the draft Forest Law reform bill has been scheduled for next Tuesday (Dec. 06).

The Senator explained that the PSOL party had refused to accept an agreement among party leaders in the Senate to ignore the stipulations of item 412 of the Senates internal regulations whereby a period of at least two Senate sessions must pass after the request for an urgent vote has been filed before a draft bill can in fact be voted. Yesterday the Senate approved the request for urgency by 58 votes to six and so the project can only be voted in the coming week.

To override the two session interval stipulation and have the draft bill voted in the same session a formal and unanimous agreement of all party leaders in the Senate would be necessary, but PSOL leader Senator Marinor Brito objected and called for strict compliance with the regulations.

The urgency request was approved yesterday and so the earliest opportunity for the bill to go before the Senate would be this Friday, a day of the week when the Senate does not normally hold sessions.

Senator Marta Suplicy, who was chairing the session of the Environment Standing Committee the day before yesterday (Nov. 29)attempted to begin the reading of the urgency request and initiate the process – in view of the leaders’ agreement to vote on the Bill yesterday -- but she was interrupted by Senator Randolphe Rodrigues of the PSOL party on a point of order. He pointed out that, according to the regulations, requests for urgent voting can only be read out in the first part of a session, and not during the part dedicated to the Order of the Day, as was the case.