Argentina’s governing party has postponed the committee report on the 2027 budget it had planned to sign on Wednesday, after failing to win support from its allies.
A committee report is the document members sign to send a bill to a vote of the full chamber. Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, does not have enough signatures without the PRO, the party of former President Mauricio Macri, the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and provincial groups. Lower-house leader Martín Menem met the allied groups on Tuesday, and the Wednesday committee meeting where the report was to be signed was suspended.
The PRO asked for regular transfers to Buenos Aires City from federal tax revenue, a lower fuel tax, public reporting on road concessions and half the value-added tax on eggs. Opposition groups are also negotiating university funding. The governing party has agreed to drop the articles that would roll back disability protections.
Clarín reported that the PRO got no answer to several requests and that the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, floated settling Buenos Aires City’s claim in a separate deal outside the budget, which the PRO rejected. The report is now expected around Nov. 17 at best, which would still allow a full-chamber session on Nov. 18, though allied lawmakers did not rule out a week’s delay. Little is expected in Congress in the meantime: Pope Leo XIV is due to visit Argentina on Nov. 8-11 and many lawmakers plan to travel to the United States to watch its midterm elections.
The budget bill reached the lower house in mid-September and debate began in committee with a Treasury official defending it. The Senate must also approve it before it becomes law.