Morena accelerates the approval of López Obrador’s project to eliminate autonomous bodies

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The Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Congress has accelerated the process of the initiative sent by the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which eliminates seven autonomous bodies and regulatory entities. The draft is already ready despite the agreement approved last week that established August 15 as the first date. The opposition legislators, who have been taken by surprise by the speed, trust that despite the premature presentation of the document, the calendar to vote on the initiative will not be altered. The preliminary report contains no changes with respect to the initiative sent by the president. The proposal for reforms to various articles of the Constitution eliminates bodies such as the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) to allocate resources to the newly created Pension Fund and social programs.

The distribution of the document has taken some opposition legislators who make up the legislative body by surprise — despite the fact that it was already on the commission’s website since April 30 — They consider that the acceleration of its distribution violates the agreements proposed by the Morena legislators, said Jorge Triana, a PAN deputy and member of the body. However, he says that the distribution of the draft bill does not change the already approved calendar in any way, so he hopes that it will not be until the last day of the first half of August when the legislative process begins. Braulio López, coordinator of Movimiento Ciudadano and member of the commission, also expressed surprise at the advancement of the project that he has not yet reviewed.

The argument of the presidential initiative is anchored in the alleged lack of legitimacy of the organizations, added to the need to rationalize public resources, the promotion of the so-called republican austerity and avoid the duplication of functions that allow greater investment in social programs. The proposal also contemplates the extinction of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) or the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).

If the proposed modification to various articles of the Constitution is implemented, the functions of the agencies will be transferred to other federal bodies. Cofece, to the Ministry of Economy; the energy regulators, to the Ministry of Energy; IFT to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport; education to the Ministry of Public Education and Coneval to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. Meanwhile, the powers of INAI, an agency whose primary functions are transparency in the use of public resources, accountability and the proper treatment of personal data, will be distributed to various government entities and to the Civil Service, as occurred before its creation with obligated subjects as judge and party.

The resources that have been allocated to them to date, totaling more than 32 billion pesos, have also been put on the table as a premise to demonstrate the probable viability of their extinction. “With the current reform proposal, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) assumes the establishment of electricity rates and the Energy Secretariat assumes the other powers and attributions of the CRE, also taking into account the criteria of the republican austerity policy of the current Government,” is established in the draft.

López Obrador’s initiatives must be approved in commissions of the lower house before the end of the legislature. With their approval by the parliamentary majority of Morena and its allies, PT and PVEM, the presidential proposals will remain alive to be inherited by the next Legislature that begins work on September 1. So far, the ruling party has guaranteed a qualified majority as a result of the June 2 election.

Source: elpais