Milei’s 2026 Budget bill likely to win Senate approval

La Libertad Avanza has gained new Peronist support for Senate approval of its 2026 Budget bill and is confident the legislation will clear the upper house.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that four senators from the Convicción Federal caucus would give the bill its first reading and accompany most of its articles.
If that holds, the government would be on track to win the first approval of a budget since President Javier Milei took office in December 2023.

The government’s only doubt lies in the tight numbers it has to approve Article 30 of the bill, which seeks to withdraw financing from laws to benefit teachers and science, as well as the percentage allocated to technical schools.

In contrast to first reading, which could draw 48 votes with the four Peronists anticipating their favourable vote, in the case of Article 30, the government can only count on the support of PRO, most lawmakers representing the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) and some provincial caucuses.

The key to that vote will be the number of opposition senators in the chamber at the moment of voting for that article of the Budget, parliamentary spokespersons told the Noticias Argentinas news agency on Tuesday.

The article establishes the repeal of legislation fixing an investment of six percent of gross domestic product in the educational system, one percent of GDP in national science and 0.2 percent of public-sector spending for technical colleges.

La Libertad Avanza needs to vote for the Budget and each one of its articles in order to transform into law the bill voted by the Chamber of Deputies.

La Libertad Avanza has 21 senators (including Luis Juez) and counts on the support of around 10 Radicals, three representing PRO, two the Frente de la

Concordia de Misiones, one Independencia (Tucumán), single senators from Chubut, Neuquén and Salta and five grouped under Provincias Unidas.

Federal convictions

The decision by one of the Peronist caucuses, Convicción Federal, to contribute their votes to Milei’s budget at the request of Peronist governors caused some surprise, parliamentary sources said. 

Convicción Federal has five senators, of whom four have already decided to give first reading to the bill. At the time of writing, La Rioja’s Fernando Rejal has yet to decide. His Governor Ricardo Quintela rejects the initiative.

Nevertheless, the lawmakers briefed that they would not accompany Article 30, which proposes the withdrawal of financing from the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation as well as of Technical Professional Education and the National Defence Fund.

If they hold firm and back Milei’s Budget, they will likely provoke  the first relevant rift in the Senate between Peronist governors and the wing still responding to ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Upper House caucus headed by Senator José Mayans (Justicialist-Formosa).

The Convicción Federal senators who would vote in favour are Fernando Salino (San Luis), Carolina Moisés (Jujuy), Guillermo Andrada (Catamarca) and Sandra Mendoza (Tucumán). Both Andrada and Mendoza respond to their governors, Raúl Jalil and Osvaldo Jaldo, respectively.

The big unknown which still persists is how the two senators of the Frente Cívico de Santiago del Estero (ex-governor Gerardo Zamora and Elia del Carmen Moreno) will vote.

In the lower house, of the seven deputies responding to Zamora, five voted against while two stayed away.

Casa Rosada movement

Meanwhile, negotiations continued through to yesterday so that the government can guarantee all its votes for the discussion of each and every article.

The Casa Rosada wants to minimise the impact of the truncated vote in the Chamber of Deputies and seeks to gain upper house approval of the text with over 40 votes.

Last week, the lower house dealt a blow to Milei when they failed to repeal neither the law for a state of emergency for the disabled nor for university financing. 

The format of the voting has yet to be defined – whether it will be per chapter or article by article, a key definition for the outcome of the debate.

Over and above the Budget, the government is increasingly worried about restoring its links with the centre-right PRO, especially its caucus chief Cristian Ritondo, who manifested his displeasure with the appointments in the Auditor-General’s Office via a court presentation pushed by PRO deputy Álvaro González.

Although La Libertad Avanza maintains that PRO “is no longer the party it used to be,” they recognise that its votes will be decisive for advancing with the structural reforms driven by the President.

The government will not include the controversial ‘Chapter 11’ in its Budget bill, which was rejected by the deputies and contained the repeal of the laws for a state of emergency for the disabled and university financing. 

Patricia Bullrich, heading La Libertad Avanza caucus, said that the government would have the sufficient votes: “We have the votes and we’re going to vote without amendments. We’re not going to insist on Chapter 11.”

Her definition sealed the government strategy: close ranks and avoid reopening debate while closing the book on parliamentary procedure.

The government calculates that they could reach 45 votes, well above the 37 necessary. 

Court ruling 

A federal court last Tuesday ordered the Executive Branch to immediately apply the university financing law, quashing by way of injunction the decree suspending the updating of academic salaries and student scholarships.

The decision was adopted by Federal Court for Administrative Litigation 11 under judge Martín Cormick, in the framework of a judicial action presented by the National Inter-University Council and other university bodies.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL