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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (1610)	4/13/1998 2:29:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22640

BRAZIL CONGRESS WEEK - Scandals delay reform votes Reuters, Monday, April 13, 1998 at 14:17 By Joelle Diderich BRASILIA, April 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian lawmakers were scheduled to vote this week on whether to expel two deputies, delaying once again votes on amendments to the government's crucial social security bill, congressional officials said. The expulsion votes were likely to spark heated debate and will dominate the agenda as lawmakers trickle back from a four-day Easter holiday, a Chamber of Deputies spokesman said. "These processes take up practically the entire session," the spokesman said. Although President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is seen as keen to press ahead with votes on amendments, which threaten to render the social security bill toothless, he will be unable to do so until the end of the month, according to analysts. The Chamber of Deputies approved the social security bill in a first full vote in January. Since then it has defeated about 20 proposed minor alterations. The government needs a three-fifths majority to kill two key amendments, which seek to do away with the introduction of minimum retirement ages and allow civil servants to continue being paid pensions as high as their salaries after their retirement. But attendance in Congress will be depressed next week because of a public holiday on April 21, and the ranks of government allies are in disarray after a cabinet reshuffle, which upset some of Cardoso's partners. The Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), with a significant 22 votes in the Chamber of Deputies -- the lower house of Congress -- is smarting after Cardoso replaced two of its members at the head of the agriculture and labor ministries. The feathers of the party will need smoothing in order to prevent the PTB from severing its alliance with the government, as it has already done once. "The government's leadership in the chamber thinks it's better that after this ministerial reform ... they devote a bit of time to ironing out these problems," political analyst Ricardo Pedreira of Santa Fe Ideias said. "But as unhappy as the (PTB) may be about what happened, they won't want to oppose the government. Compensations can be made," Pedreira added. Voting on the social security amendments would resume on April 28 or 29, with the full second vote on the bill likely to take place in mid-May, just weeks before campaigning begins for the October general elections, he said. In the meantime, lawmakers will decide Tuesday whether to expel Deputy Pedrinho Abrao on accusations he demanded a bribe from a construction company in return for approval of a dam project included in the 1997 budget. On Wednesday, they decide whether to oust Sergio Naya, a construction mogul whose luxury apartment block collapsed in February, killing eight people. National television later broadcast a videotape in which the 55-year-old deputy boasted about forging official documents and using low-grade building material in his construction projects that were passed off as quality materials. Both votes need an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies to be passed. Analysts said Naya was likely to be expelled as many politicians were keen to reaffirm their anti-corruption credentials ahead of this year's elections. joelle.diderich@reuters.com))