Lula vetoes increase in the number of deputies in the Chamber

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) vetoed the bill that increases the number of federal deputies from 513 to 531. The order was published this Thursday 17th in the Official Gazette of the Union.

In a message to Congress, Lula justified the veto as being contrary to the public interest and unconstitutional. The Ministries of Justice and Public Security, Finance, Planning and Budget, and the Attorney General's Office expressed their opposition to the measure, citing several legal provisions, such as the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

"By providing for an increase in the number of parliamentarians, the measure entails an increase in mandatory expenses without a complete estimate of the budgetary impact, the budget source, or compensatory measures, burdening not only the Union but also federative entities (Federal Constitution, art. 27, caput). Furthermore, art. 6, sole paragraph, of the Complementary Bill is at odds with art. 131, IV, of the 2025 Budget Guidelines Law, as it provides for the possibility of monetary adjustment of public expenditures," the President's message states.

The bill was approved by lawmakers at the end of June in response to a request from the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The Court ruled on a lawsuit filed by the Pará state government, which alleged the legislature's failure to update the number of representatives in line with population change, which is updated every ten years by the demographic census. Pará argued that it had been entitled to four additional representatives since 2010. The last update was in 1993.

The Supreme Federal Court then ordered Congress to vote on a law to redistribute the representation of federal representatives in relation to the proportion of the Brazilian population in each state and the Federal District. The Constitution stipulates that no state in the Federation should have fewer than eight or more than 70 representatives.

At the time, the deputies refused to reduce the number of seats from some states by following the proportional rule. If this rule were followed, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, and Alagoas could lose seats.

Instead, the bill approved in the Chamber increases the number of vacancies for states experiencing population growth and could generate annual costs of R$65 million for new structures. Another impact would be parliamentary amendments that new representatives would now have the right to propose within the scope of the federal budget.

Furthermore, with the increase in the number of federal deputies, the number of state deputies would also change, according to the constitutional provision. Legislative assemblies must have three times the state's representation in the Chamber of Deputies, with a cap of 36. This would impact state budgets by between R$2 million and R$22 million annually.

Following President Lula 's veto, lawmakers will have 30 days to analyze the measure, allowing them to uphold or overturn the veto. If the veto is upheld, the Superior Electoral Court will redistribute the seats by October 1st, as per the Supreme Federal Court's ruling.