Milei's administration seeks to move forward with a budget that prioritizes fiscal discipline, economic predictability and compliance with long-postponed court rulings
Compartir:
After obtaining a favorable opinion, the national Government will seek this Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies the initial approval of the 2026 Budget, a central piece of the official strategy to consolidate fiscal order, reduce discretionary powers, and send signals of institutional seriousness. The bill reaches the floor with the support of allied blocs and with substantive amendments that, according to the ruling party, aim to clean up the spending framework and correct inherited distortions.
During the session held this Tuesday in the Budget and Finance Committee, the Executive Branch managed to approve the opinion by majority, with 28 signatures and 6 dissents. Among the sectors that supported the Government were representatives of PRO, UCR, MID, Production and Labor, and Federal Innovation. The provincial blocs Elijo Catamarca, which answers to Governor Raúl Jalil, and Independencia, aligned with Tucumán's Osvaldo Jaldo, also joined, although six of those legislators recorded partial dissents.
El proyecto del Presupuesto 2026 obtuvo el dictamen para ser tratado este miércoles.
In parallel, and with the same number of signatures but four dissents, an opinion was issued for the Fiscal Commitment Law. Opposition members announced the submission of alternative bills and opinions, anticipating a session marked by intense political clashes.
In the final stretch of the meeting, relevant changes were confirmed regarding the text sent by the Executive in September. Among the most significant amendments are the repeal of the funding law for national universities, the Disability Emergency Law, and the elimination of specific funds for Garrahan Hospital.
According to information accessed by the media, Article 75 of the opinion explicitly states: "Laws 27.793 and 27.795 are repealed", corresponding to the disability emergency and university budgets, respectively. Regarding the high-complexity pediatric hospital, the Government maintained that it has already fulfilled the obligations provided for.
The document that will be debated on the floor also contemplates indexing the exchange rate to inflation, eliminating the automatic adjustment of the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) and other allowances. These decisions provoked outright rejection from opposition blocs, which announced that they will not support either the Budget Law or the Fiscal Innocence Law, and they added objections to the labor reform, which will also not have the backing of some sectors.
From the ruling party, the head of the La Libertad Avanza bloc, Gabriel Bornoroni, defended the pursuit of a favorable opinion "to provide clarity to Argentines and to investors around the world so they can see that Milei's Argentina is serious". In contrast, the head of the Fuerza Patria bloc, Germán Martínez, stated that "it was the Government's responsibility not to have a budget" and added: "It did not want one in 2024 and in 2025 in order to increase the levels of discretion with which it operated. We are pleased that the Government now wants a Budget, but we need a different budget".
Germán Martínez.
When formalizing the rejection by the Peronist bloc, Martínez announced the submission of an opinion and a bill of their own. He also questioned Article 30 of the official bill, which eliminates the 6% allocated to education funding, and he proposed guaranteeing funds for the technical education law. "For each issue we will always have an alternative proposal, because we do not give up", he stated.
The Fuerza Patria opinion gathered eighteen signatures and became the first minority opinion, to which the Unidos opinion was added. With this scenario of support and objections, the bills were left ready for debate on the floor, where the ruling party will seek the initial approval of both initiatives.
Among the amendments introduced by the Executive Branch, one of the most relevant clauses establishes the payment of the revenue-sharing debt to the City of Buenos Aires, a conflict that has dragged on for years of disputes, both with the current administration and during the disastrous administration of Alberto Fernández. If the initial approval is granted, the State would be one step closer to settling the debt it has owed the Capital since 2020, after the cut in shared funds.
The initiative aims to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court, which ordered the restitution to the City of 2.95% of the shared revenue pool, a transfer that had not been carried out despite the court decision of December 2022. At the close of negotiations, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem, and the Interior Minister, Diego Santilli, agreed to include the article demanded by PRO, after the head of the caucus, Cristian Ritondo, obtained the commitment to add it to the text during this Wednesday's session.
The new paragraph authorizes the Chief of Cabinet to make the necessary budgetary adjustments to comply with the procedural acts ordered by the Supreme Court in the case "Government of the City of Buenos Aires v. National State on declaratory action of unconstitutionality – collection of pesos". It is worth recalling that in September 2024 judicial, national, and Buenos Aires City representatives met to advance a preliminary agreement that would allow compliance with the injunction, although the debt has remained unsettled to date.
