Brazil Senate Delays Impeachment-Law Overhaul to 2026 as It Asks STF to Halt Mendes Ruling

Overview

• The Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee withdrew PL 1,388/2023 from its agenda at Senator Weverton Rocha’s request, pushing the report reading and vote to 2026.
• The Senate petitioned the Supreme Court to suspend or revoke Minister Gilmar Mendes’s injunction and to pause the virtual plenary review set for December 12.
• The bill modernizes the 1950 impeachment statute, broadens who can be tried, and codifies procedures with deadlines, screening of frivolous cases, and up to 180 days of removal with pay during trials.
• The draft reshapes filing rules by allowing parties with representation, the OAB, class entities, the PGR, or citizen petitions backed by roughly 1% of voters, and it sets a 15‑day decision window for legislative presidents with a structured committee phase.
• The delay follows backlash to Mendes’s order limiting filings to the PGR and raising the Senate threshold to two‑thirds, as senators seek a less reactive debate and some opposition voices warn the text could further stiffen impeachment against STF ministers.