Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Bicameral Commission rejects DNU that makes Arsat frequencies available

The opposing parties got the votes in the Permanent Bicameral Commission of Legislative Procedure to achieve a majority in the rejection ruling. Now it must be treated by both houses and the ruling party must get the votes for it to go into effect.

The criticism of the opposition legislators is regulatory and procedural; they argue that what enacts the DNU is within the bill on the Short Law that already has half endorsement of Senators and continues its parliamentary procedure in the Computing and Communications Committe of the House of Representatives.

"Arsat issue was handled responsibly, eight meetings were held in committee of the Senate, the participation was very broad, the Senate approved the issue, and now it is under consideration in the House. Allowing the President through a DNU of the entire project to extract only one article, which is perhaps the one that interests him, I think is an enslavement that in Congress we can not allow", complained Maria Cristina Fiore, Partido Renovador de Salta Senator.

For Anabel Fernandez Sagasti (FPV), the rule is unconstitutional because "there is no need or urgency to divert or skip the powers of Congress, within the foundation of the decree there is not even a comma in arguing what the need is".

"The Executive undermines the work that this Congress did to preserve the contents and companies of the interior. In order for there to be investments in the sector, a legal framework sanctioned by Congress is needed, which is stable and permanent", said Senator Daniel Lavera (PJ La Pampa). And he considered that if the topic was "so important" the Executive should have included it in the extraordinary sessions instead of doing it through a DNU.

In contrast, Pablo Tonelli, from Cambiemos, said the DNU was motivated by "the need to provide private cell phone operators with higher frequencies than they have today because the growth of traffic is exponential".

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