Brazil lower house approves pension overhaul in second round, eyes passage by Senate

By Ricardo Brito and Pedro Fonseca

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's lower house of Congress early on Wednesday approved the text of a far-reaching pension reform bill in a second round of voting, and eyed finalizing all deliberations on the bill by the end of the day, as the central economic reform of President Jair Bolsonaro's administration steadily advances.

The text had already been approved by the lower house, 379 to 131, in July. However, under Brazilian law, the text requires two votes in both the lower and upper houses, as it includes changes to the federal constitution.

In the second round, the bill passed by a vote of 370 to 124.

All that remained for the reform to pass to the Senate was voting on amendments, which House Speaker Rodrigo Maia told reporters are likely to be rejected. Voting on the amendments should finish around 10 p.m., he said.

In a brief interview later on Wednesday, Maia reaffirmed that the lower house was on track to finalize voting on the amendments, none of which, he said, were expected to pass.

“It's well organized,” he said. “We had some representatives that were outside of Brasilia that are arriving today.”

Pension reform is the cornerstone of Bolsonaro's economic agenda, aimed at saving the public purse around 1 trillion reais ($253 billion) over the next decade as he tries to close a massive budget gap.