How much will the increase in the number of deputies cost the public coffers?

The Federal Senate gave the green light to a proposal that increases the number of federal deputies from 513 to 531 , in a decision that could represent a cost of at least 95 million reais per year to the public coffers .

The calculation includes 10 million reais that will be used to pay the salaries of the 18 new federal deputies and another 85 million reais to be spent by the states in a 'cascade effect' caused in the legislative assemblies by the approval.

During the full four-year parliamentary term, the approved project will cost the public coffers 380 million reais .

R$55 million 'out of account'

The impact, however, could be even greater: when the proposal arrived from the Chamber, there was no limit on expenses related to the 18 new parliamentary seats. In this initial scenario, the costs could reach 150 million reais per year, according to Congress calculations.

In the Senate, the text then prohibited the creation of new expenses to cover parliamentary quotas, airfares and office expenses for additional deputies. Thus, 55 million reais – which would be used to cover the offices and activities of the new federal deputies – were left out of the final bill. This amount will have to be covered by a redistribution of the current budget among the 531 deputies.

Despite the 'lock', the approved text allows the amounts allocated to expenses for new positions to increase gradually. In this way, the Chamber can continue to increase the total amounts for parliamentary quotas, airfares and office expenses in the coming years, thus compensating for maintaining the 2025 budget parameters for the year 2026.

Effect on states

Congressman Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) was the author of the amendment that limited spending related to the increase in seats in the Chamber . His proposal does not, however, extend to state Legislative Assemblies, which will also be impacted by the federal decision.

The size of the federal benches directly influences the composition of each state parliament, as established by the Federal Constitution.

Currently, the country has 1,059 state deputies. With the new contingent approved, 30 new seats will be created in the Assemblies throughout the national territory.

Considering parliamentary salaries, quotas and office expenses for all state deputies, this growth could generate additional expenses of 85 million reais per year for the public coffers. The amount was revealed in a survey prepared by the website G1 .

The biggest contributor to this figure is the office budget, which is a resource used to pay the parliamentarians' support teams. This item alone represents 56 million reais per year. Parliamentary quotas can reach 16 million reais, while the deputies' salaries would add up to another 13 million reais.

Parliamentary amendments

At the federal level, the formula is as follows: with a greater number of seats, the amount reserved for amendments will need to be shared among more members of parliament. Another alternative would be to raise the constitutional ceiling established for these funds.

The Constitution determines that individual amendments must be limited to 2% of the net current revenue of the fiscal year prior to the submission of the budget proposal. Half of this percentage must be allocated exclusively to public health actions and services.

To increase this limit, however, it would be necessary for Congress to approve a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC). If the measure is approved in Brasília, the final cost of maintaining the new deputies will be even higher than the 95 million initially estimated.