The Argentine Senate began on Wednesday, December 16, at 11:00 a.m. local time, the committee debate on the labor reform bill promoted by the Government. The ruling bloc aims to give this initiative an expedited process and hopes to vote on it on Friday, December 26, Noticias Argentinas agency learned from legislative sources. To swiftly approve changes in labor market and trade union legislation, the committees on Labor and Social Security and on Budget and Finance will be formed separately at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and the plenary session to begin the round of consultations will be held at 11:00 a.m. The first speaker will be the Secretary of Labor, Julio Cordero, and officials from the Deregulation Ministry, led by Federico Sturzenegger, among other speakers, sources told Noticias Argentinas. The opening of the labor reform debate follows the meeting held on Tuesday morning between Vice President Victoria Villarruel and the heads of blocs, during which the composition of committees to discuss the labor reform and the glaciers law simultaneously was established. The president of the La Libertad Avanza bloc, Patricia Bullrich, informed accredited journalists, including Noticias Argentinas, that the committees on Labor and Social Security, which she will preside over, and on Budget and Finance, Mining, and Environment and Sustainable Development, will be formed on Wednesday morning. The main objective of the leader of the 'violet' bloc is to secure a report this Friday after two days of detailed debate in the committees. There will be a total of 15 speakers over two days. One of the outstanding data from the meeting held on the first floor of the Senate was the formation of a bloc of 44 senators that served Bullrich to gain ground in the committees against Kirchnerism. This step is key for the ruling bloc to win the committee reports, although for the law's approval, it will need to have well-knit consensuses to have at least 37 senators to open the session and sanction that law. In this way, Bullrich agreed with the UCR, the PRO, and provincial blocs to have a majority in the four committees. The Labor and Social Security committee will have 17 members, of which the ruling bloc along with its allies secured 12 members, with 5 from La Libertad Avanza, 3 from the UCR, one from the PRO, one from the Front for Renewal, one from Federal Change, and another from 'Saltenians first,' while Peronism gets the remaining five. In addition to Bullrich, that committee will include libertarians Carmen Álvarez Rivero, Joaquín Benegas Lynch, Juan Cruz Godoy, Bruno Olivera Lucero; radicals Eduardo Vischi, Rodolfo Suárez and Silvana Schneider; the PRO's Enrique Goerling Lara, the missionary Sonia Rojas Decut, the Correntino Carlos Espinola, and the Salteña Favia Royon. The Budget and Finance committee, for its part, has 17 members, with 12 corresponding to the alliance between LLA, UCR, PRO, and provincial blocs, while Peronism will have six members. The libertarian Ezequiel Atauchem will preside over that committee, and it will also include Agustín Monteverde, Bullrich, Olivera Lucero, and Bartolomé Abdala; radicals Flavio Fama, Mariana Juri, and Schneider; Andrea Cristina from the PRO, the Córdoban Alejandra Vigo, Edith Terenzi, and Beatriz Avila. The Senate will also form the committees on Mining, Energy and Fuels, and Sustainable Development and Environment, which will open the debate on the glaciers law, whose treatment was a demand from the provinces of Mendoza, Catamarca, Salta, Jujuy, and San Juan. The initiative modifies the glaciers law and grants provinces the authority to analyze mining projects, although they must always protect the environment.
