Senate evaluates new repatriation challenge to fund nursing ground

One month from the end of the 60-day deadline established by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) for Congress to find funding sources for the nursing floor, projects are advancing, but there is still no solution to permanently close the accounts.

Scheduled to be voted on last week in the Senate, the project that reopens the program for the repatriation of resources from abroad (PL 798/2021) did not enter the plenary agenda because government technicians are working on adjustments to make it more attractive, and, therefore, with a greater volume of repatriated resources. The text is one of the projects being discussed in Congress to fund the nurses’ floor, but like others, it will bring a temporary solution, without guaranteeing the financing of permanent expenses. These projects are key to solving this year’s problem, but they don’t solve the issue in the long term.

I talked to the government leader in the Senate, Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ), and he told me that the idea is to calibrate the text of the repatriation project to bring it closer to the first edition of the government program, which brought R $179 billion to the country, and less similar to the second edition, which repatriated less than R$2 billion.

“We had two repatriation projects, a very good one, which was unprecedented, and a very bad one. The amount that was brought in did not help states and municipalities. As we are dealing with a new repatriation project that is on the same basis as the first one, apart from the exchange rate variation, which is natural, we have to make it attractive. What we were doing was copying the last one, which didn’t bring much. There are some questions that we still have, tax incidence, defining what percentage. Looking at the previous project, it did not achieve the results, and as we want to reach and face the Nursing floor, it cannot be a make-believe. Has resources, not in the same proportion [do primeiro programa]but the program needs to be attractive so that the government can bring and transfer it to states and municipalities”.

The text is authored by Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), reported by Renam Calheiros (MDB-AL). It reopens for 120 days the deadline for joining the Special Regime for Exchange and Tax Regularization (RERCT).

Last week, the Chamber advanced in the effort to find funding sources for the Nursing floor, approving PLP 7/22, which allocates R$ 2 billion to Santas Casas, by reallocating resources from health and social assistance funds from states and municipalities for non-profit private entities affiliated to the SUS. Although the floor is not mentioned in the project, its objective is to end the liabilities of the entities, deputies hope that the resources can make room for Santas Casas and philanthropic hospitals to pay for the floor, even if provisionally. The text went to the Senate.

Earlier this month, the Senate approved a similar bill, PLP 44/2022, with the same source of funds. The senators’ text allows for the transfer of resources stopped in health and social assistance funds, but without the focus on Santas Casas and philanthropic hospitals. The text reached the Chamber last Tuesday and is not expected to be voted on, signaling that there is no complete consensus between the two houses on the matter.

Opposition deputies in the House are moving to collect signatures for a constitutional amendment to guarantee payment of the floor with the surplus from federal funds, but that proposal still lacks support from a majority of deputies.

Faced with the delay in finding a definitive solution, on the one hand, municipalities increase pressure to, on the one hand, increase the FPM (Municipal Participation Fund), and on the other hand, enact PEC 122/2015, which prevents floors of other categories from being approved. in Congress. The municipalities are pressing for a proposal that is still in the phase of collecting signatures in the Chamber to increase the FPM by 1.5% to the municipal public coffers. In the Senate, PEC 23/2022, by Senator Wellington Fagundes (PL-MT) increases the FPM by 1%. The approval of one of the subjects is considered essential by the municipalities for the cost of the nursing floor.

Law 14,434/2022, approved by Congress and sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) defined the minimum payment of BRL 4,750 per month for nurses.

Source: Uol