Brazil's Senate voted 63 to 4 in a secret ballot on Tuesday to confirm Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSB-MG), 49, as a minister of the TCU, the federal accounts court that audits how public money is spent. The seat opened when minister Bruno Dantas resigned on Monday. The nomination came from Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP).
Approval required at least 41 of the chamber's 81 votes. Senators first passed an urgency motion, which sent the nomination straight to the floor with no confirmation hearing in the economic affairs committee. The rapporteur was Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), a former Senate president whom Alcolumbre personally asked to write the report, according to InfoMoney. Alcolumbre and 19 senators co-signed the nomination, including government leader Teresa Leitão (PT-PE) and opposition leader Rogério Marinho (PL-RN).
A chamber in tribute mode
In his report, Calheiros recited Pacheco's biography and endorsed the nominee.
"I offer the biographical references because they are necessary to prove the nominee's qualifications, so that no doubt hangs over a vote in favor of Rodrigo Pacheco. He will certainly add distinction to the Federal Court of Accounts, just as he did in the serene, wise and competent running of this House", Calheiros said.
Senator Otto Alencar (PSD-BA) called for a unanimous vote and recalled Pacheco's term as Senate president during the January 8, 2023 attacks on government buildings in Brasília. "In the defense of democracy against the threats to the integrity of the electronic voting machines and on January 8, president Rodrigo Pacheco was one of the most important Brazilians of that moment", Alencar said. Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), the government's leader in Congress, said his friend is "fit for any post in our Republic". Pacheco thanked colleagues for the "honorable mission" and the "confidence of the broad majority". "My gratitude is immense at this moment, emotion takes over", he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
The vacancy and the next step
Dantas resigned in a letter to TCU President Vital do Rêgo Filho and said he was leaving to pursue "new projects", adding that "rotation in the country's high offices is a virtue". Lawmakers had treated Pacheco's move to the TCU as all but certain since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva passed him over for the Supreme Court seat left by Luís Roberto Barroso, according to InfoMoney. Lula nominated Jorge Messias, the Union's attorney general, and the Senate rejected him. Pacheco, one of Alcolumbre's closest allies, dropped a potential run for governor of Minas Gerais and announced he will leave electoral politics at the end of his term.
The nomination now goes to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, which is expected to vote on Wednesday. If confirmed, Lula will formally appoint Pacheco to a post he can hold until mandatory retirement at 75, with a monthly salary of about 44,000 reais. Chamber President Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) has told allies he expects a smooth vote, and Senate government leader Teresa Leitão relayed that Lula said he takes "great pleasure" in Pacheco's approval, according to InfoMoney.