By a majority of nine votes of the ministers, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) declared unconstitutional and invalidated the reform by article 61 of the Federal Budget and Treasury Responsibility Law (LFPRH)because it empowers the President of the Republic, in a discretionary manner, to determine the destination of the resources saved with the Federal Republican Austerity Law (LFAR).
As part of the second day of discussion of the unconstitutionality action 139/2019, against the LFAR, the ministers of the Court invalidated said provision for violating the exclusive power of the Chamber of Deputies.
Of the 11 ministers that make up the plenary, only the ministers Loretta Ortiz and Yasmin Esquivel Mossa -ratified by the Senate on proposals of the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador– They voted in favor of validating the reform to article 61 of the LFPRH, which was approved in 2019 by a majority of legislators from Morena and legislative allies.
The minister Norma Lucia Pineapple, speaker of the matter, stressed that it is invalid that, by decree, the Executive channel budget savings resources at its discretion, “since this is not compatible with the exclusive power of the Chamber of Deputies to approve the Expenditure Budget.” He recalled that it is also the exclusive power of the federal deputies to approve the National Development Plan.
He added that the Chamber of Deputies has the exclusive power to redirect public spending, for “a generic approval would be equivalent to delegating the power of public spending to the executor of the same, which is incompatible with the principles of legality and specialty, but above all It is incompatible with the purpose of that exclusive power, which consists of serving as a democratic control of federal public spending and as a counterweight to the Executive, setting the channels and limits to discretion in the execution of the budget.”
For his part, the minister Juan Luis Gonzalez Alcantara Carranca agreed that the rule violates the power of the Chamber of Deputies to establish in the law the destination of public resources considering the item and the authorized amount.
“Therefore, it is not possible for the Executive Power or any other body or power to readjust their spending items based on savings generated in the year without invading the competence of the Chamber of Deputies, otherwise, it would give rise to the Chamber of Deputies of Deputies lost control over public resources, since it would be enough for the executors of spending, with budgetary autonomy, to inflate certain items and then declare savings and redirect their own spending or, worse still, reduce chapter 1000 to reallocate other resources for financial purposes. various,” he said.
In contrast, supporting the norm approved by Morena and her legislative allies, Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa said that although article 74 of the Constitution establishes that one of the exclusive powers of the Chamber of Deputies is to approve the federal budget, “this constitutional attribution is exhausted with the approval of this annual instrument to regulate spending, so nothing prevents budgetary savings derived from austerity policies The Executive Branch applies them, making their exercise transparent through the issuance of a decree that accounts for the specific destination in which they will be applied.”
However, the minister Javier Laynez Potisek made it clear that “all the figures, such as under-year, budget adjustments, excess income, spending reductions are regulated, which occur throughout the budget year, are duly regulated, precisely, to limit the discretion or the freedom, in this case, of the Executive to use it with total freedom, all the figures that can be given during the year have very clear rules”.
With this matter, the plenary session of the Court definitively resolved the unconstitutionality action 139/2019 promoted by Senators of the Republic against the decree issued by the General Congress of the United Mexican States, through which the Law Federal Law of Republican Austerity and various provisions of the General Law of Administrative Responsibilities and Federal Law of Budget and Treasury Responsibility were reformed and added, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on November 19, 2019.