Brazil’s Congress Sets Oct. 16 Joint Session on 2026 Budget and Lula’s Environmental Licensing Vetoes

Overview

• Senate President Davi Alcolumbre scheduled a joint session for Oct. 16 to take up the 2026 budget guidelines and 63 presidential vetoes to the new Environmental Licensing Law (No. 15,190/2025).
• Leaders of the Senate’s PL, PSD, and MDB blocs signaled they will seek to overturn most vetoes, including restoring simplified self‑declaration permits for medium‑polluting projects.
• President Lula issued Provisional Measure No. 1,308/2025 to regulate the Special Environmental Licensing (LAE), which is in force pending congressional approval and is moving through a mixed committee led by Senator Tereza Cristina.
• Government leader Randolfe Rodrigues backed the joint session and proposed using it to set a timetable for debating the provisional measure and a related Chamber bill that reflect the administration’s approach.
• Vetoed items targeted by lawmakers include single‑phase LAE and broader state control over licensing criteria, while measures preserved by the vetoes include special protection for the Atlantic Forest and expanded consultation for Indigenous and quilombola communities.