House of Representatives approves bill 2633/20, the Land Grabbing Bill

By 296 votes to 136, the House of Representatives approved bill 2633/20, dubbed the “Land Grabbing Bill”, which changes the rules of landholding regularization. The bill is criticized by environmentalists for providing amnesty to land grabbers and encouraging the theft of public lands. The proposal changes from 4 to 6 fiscal modules the size of the property that can be regularized without the need for an inspection by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA).

According to a complaint by opposition congressmen and women, the text of the bill was changed even after the voting ended, further weakening the role of the CAR (Environmental and Rural Registry) as an instrument of control. The change removed the word “active” from the term “active CAR”, a status that indicates that the responsible institution would have already analyzed whether the area applied for was not overlapping with conservation units and indigenous lands. With the change, a self declaratory CAR will suffice. Heard by Estadão, congressman Rodrigo Agostinho (PSB-SP), said the alteration is “absurd”. “It is normal to have to adjust the final text after the vote, but you can’t change what was voted on. With what they did, they removed the CAR filters that evaluate overlapping areas. We are appealing to the secretariat of the table to ask for a reconsideration of this. If the table does not respond, we will take legal action,” he told the newspaper.