Uruguay
Uruguayan opposition will take more than 50 changes to the Accountability Bill to the Senate despite the ruling party’s rejection
The Republican coalition will present additions and substitutes in the plenary, although the Broad Front maintains its decision to vote on the text approved in the Chamber of Representatives without changes. The proposals include limits on union leave, measures for the Prosecutor’s Office and a push for grazing in solar parks.
The Republican coalition will present a battery of amendments to the Accountability Bill in the Senate, although those initiatives are unlikely to advance because the Broad Front decided to approve without changes the text that came from the Chamber of Representatives, according to El País.
According to that outlet, the opposition —made up of the National Party and the Colorado Party— finished adjusting this Thursday the additions and substitutes it will take to the plenary. The committee vote is scheduled for this Friday and floor consideration would take place between Monday and Tuesday.
Senator Rodrigo Blas told El País that the opposition is promoting at least 55 amendments. Among them are two linked to public employees: placing limits on the use of union leave and preventing unspent budget balances in Executive Branch agencies from being distributed among workers. For the latter point, the proposal is to allocate those resources to programs for child care, disability and diabetes treatment.
It is also proposed, in the area of the Ministry of Public Health, to create a national program to prevent interruptions in medical treatments due to financial problems, as well as to incorporate transparency mechanisms in ties between the pharmaceutical industry and health professionals.
According to the list obtained by El País, the opposition also wants changes to the special reparatory pension for people affected during the civic-military dictatorship. On another front, it proposes authorizing UTE to promote grazing in solar photovoltaic power generation parks.
For the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, one of the proposals is to install educational speed cameras on national roads. On the Prosecutor’s Office side, the coalition seeks to create sentencing enforcement prosecutor’s offices in Montevideo, one for cybercrime and another specialized in money laundering, as well as add assistant prosecutor positions, posts for the interior and new resource allocations.
In education, the reallocations being promoted are intended for the University of the Republic and include a pilot mental health program, the democratization of access to higher education, an increase in psychology residents and expansion in the interior, always according to El País.
Blas told that newspaper that the National Party will support about 60% of the text in committee and that, within the articles that came from the Chamber of Representatives for the Ministry of the Interior, it will back 37 of 55. Among the points it will support, he mentioned increased cash transfers for vulnerable households, the creation of the National Reintegration Institute and aspects linked to the Judiciary.
The lawmaker questioned the Broad Front’s decision not to introduce changes, arguing that this means losing the opportunity to correct errors and improve the bill, El País reported.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this event.
