Congress endorses 70% of AMLO’s initiatives

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has presented 60 initiatives to reform the Constitution in the four years he has been in office, of which the Congress of the Union has yet to resolve a quarter.

In sum, federal senators and representatives have approved 42 constitutional amendments, equivalent to 70% of the total; 15 (25%) are still pending discussion in the plenary chamber of one of the two legislative chambers, either because they are still in the process of ruling in commissions or because having already ruled, the corresponding vote has not been scheduled; two (3.33%) were “rejected” and one (1.67%) cataloged as “cared for”.

According to the Legislative Information System (SIL) of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), of the 10 (16.67%) presidential initiatives in the process of ruling in commissions, nine are in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate.

Of the five (8.33%) proposals of the federal Executive to amend the Magna Carta of which there is already an opinion, four are pending approval in the Senate and one in the lower house.

As a reviewing chamber, the Senate has not voted on the reforms to articles 116 and 127 of the Constitution to regulate the remuneration of public servants who work in constitutionally autonomous bodies.

Nor the changes to the Federal Budget and Fiscal Responsibility Law whose purpose is to institute savings mechanisms in good periods to face fiscal contingencies, in the face of sudden drops in budget revenues, including the decrease in federal revenue.

The intention is to establish that in the case of the Budget Revenue Stabilization Fund, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) may make additional contributions consisting of financial assets and that in the event that during the corresponding fiscal year there is a saving or budgetary savings in the financial cost of the federal government debt, the corresponding compensated budget adjustments may be made to allocate them to the aforementioned fund.

The senators are also pending to specify the reforms to the Organic Law of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice to reorganize the operation, powers and responsibilities of the magistrates and magistrates that make up the TFJA.

The upper house has not approved the decree corresponding to the minute that declares “2023 Year of Francisco Villa, the people’s revolutionary.”

In the lower house, the changes to the Retirement Savings Systems Law are part of the same type of lag, which seek to update various provisions regarding retirement funds and their investment regime, presented by López Obrador since 23 January 2019.

The joint commissions of Justice and Second Legislative Studies of the Chamber of Senators have not ruled, since June 20, 2020, the initiative by which the head of the federal Executive proposes to reform article 149 Ter of the Federal Penal Code to establish sanctions whoever incites racial discrimination.

Outlook for 2023

For Víctor Alarcón, a research professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), in 2023 it will be unlikely that there will be new reforms to the Constitution sent by the President of the Republic.

“The president already said that the electoral reform was his last major reform of the package that had originally been proposed within his government program,” he pointed out.

Practically, he added, the Mexican president “established that with that he closed his transformation agenda or at least the most substantive” and hence the provisions that were approved “may not have the transcendence and depth as those that until now concentrated the attention in the debate.

For his part, Fernando Dworak, an expert in legislative matters, opined that President López Obrador will be more focused on consolidating the reforms already discussed.

The next year of sessions, from now until November 2023, when the budget is approved, will be a moment in which the president is going to play, I don’t think to approve initiatives, but to try to gain ground and perceptions for things that really matter to you.”

Upon reaching his fourth year in office, he added, the president is seen as someone strong enough to push for reforms, which he will not do, which had not happened.

“In the fourth year, previous presidents were thinking about how to leave a very beautiful legacy and retire in a dignified manner, but López Obrador continues to be a credible threat,” he said.

bottle caps

Dworak added that another factor to consider for the legislative work the following year is the internal competition in Morena for the 2024 presidential candidacy.

As an example, he said that “any foreign relations issue that implies a change is already going to be perceived as favoring (Marcelo) Ebrard,” Morena’s presidential candidate.

Finally, he estimated that the constitutional moratorium put into practice by the Va por México alliance, made up of the PAN, PRI and PRD, consisting of stopping any attempt to reform the Constitution of López Obrador, does not affect the President of the Republic because they don’t care.

rolando.ramos@eleconomista.mx