Guillermo Francos: 'Ley de Bases' bill may be approved in July

Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos says President Javier Milei's sweeping reform bill and accompanying fiscal package may not be passed until July.

Nearly a month after its massive reform bill entered the upper house, La Libertad Avanza last week secured consensus at committee stage for the so-called 'Omninbus' bill. A vote on the mega-reform package in the Senate could take place as early as Friday, but the bill will have to go back to the lower house due to new amendments.

“We’ll have it in July," said Francos on Monday as he took questions over the omnibus bill. 

Milei’s administration had to remove hundreds of proposals from the original 644-article bill during negotiations with lawmakers. The new version contains around 230 articles. 

Francos admitted Monday that the law was initially too broad and “maybe that led to the failed attempt."

During a television interview, Francos revealed that the bill might be approved during the week of June 10 in the Senate and then it would go back to the Chamber of Deputies to gain its final approval in July.

“One learns from one’s mistakes and tries to change, improve and understand other people”, he said regarding the lengthy debate.

“The law is coming out, it will leave the Senate. I hope next week the Upper House will probably approve the law without any further modifications, and then it has to go back to the Chamber of Deputies given the modifications,” he clarified.

He even let some self-criticism slip on the scope of he law and the government’s haste to approve it. 

“Some time has gone by. During that time, politics in general has had to digest this new political space in Argentina. And maybe we didn’t understand from the get-go that the treatment would be so complex, and perhaps the law we presented at first was much broader and maybe that led to the failed attempt," he argued.

– TIMES/AFP