After Six Months of Remote Sessions, Senate Votes in Person This Week | Politics

The temporary return, scheduled for this Monday (21) and next Friday (25), has a reason: the analysis of the candidates for the Brazilian embassies abroad, the Superior Military Court and the National Council of Justice (CNJ).

According to the Senate letter, these votes must be secret, which, for security reasons, is not possible in the remote deliberation system, which has been in use since March 20.

In this system, few senators and public servants meet in person in a Senate room, while the rest participate in their homes or offices.

Parliamentarians are expected to return to the remote deliberation system next week.

The last face-to-face vote in the Senate Plenary took place on March 4, when the Chamber approved a provisional measure for rural credit. Subsequently, there was an in-person voting session in Congress on the 11th of that month to analyze the presidential vetoes.

On March 17, a mixed commission, made up of deputies and senators, met in person in the Senate building to analyze the MP for the Green and Yellow Contract, which ended up losing force.

Initially, the intention was to resume face-to-face voting in the second half of August, which was not possible given the high rate of Covid-19 cases in the Federal District, where the Congress building is located.

Operation ‘part time’

For this voting week, the Senate Steering Committee published an act with the “blended” operating rules of the Chamber.

The operation will be blended because the parliamentarians will be able to follow, from their offices or their residences, the plenary sessions and Saturdays of authorities in the Foreign Relations (CRE) and Constitution and Justice (CCJ) committees, but to participate in the voting they must move to the Congress building.

To avoid crowds, voting can be held at totems scattered around the Senate building, two of which will be in the building’s garage.

There will also be stations, preferably used by senators who are part of the Covid-19 risk groups, in the Chapelaria do Congresso, the main access point to the building. In these units, as well as those installed in the garage, the senator will be able to vote without leaving the car. This is the “drive-thru” vote.

There will also be greater control over access to plenary sessions and physical distance between people is foreseen.

This Monday (21), the Foreign Relations Commission (CRE) will analyze the names of 34 diplomats appointed by the government to head Brazilian embassies abroad and representations in international organizations.

Nominees are scheduled for Saturday for the Brazilian embassies in Israel, Argentina, South Africa, Denmark and Chile, among others. The arguments will be divided into three collegiate meetings throughout the day.

The full Senate is expected to vote this week on Nestor Forster’s nomination for embassy in the United States. The name was already approved by CRE, before the pandemic.

Forster was nominated for representation in Washington (United States) after President Jair Bolsonaro resigned to send his own son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP).

STM, CNJ and other sessions

On Tuesday (22), the Constitution and Justice Commission will analyze in the morning the names of Leonardo Puntel, Celso Luiz Nazareth and Carlos Augusto Amaral Oliveira, nominated for the Superior Military Court (STM).

In the afternoon, the collegiate body will vote on the appointment of Maria Thereza de Assis Moura to the position of general controller of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) for the next two years.

All these indications must be analyzed by the main plenary session of the Senate, in sessions distributed between Tuesday and Thursday (24).