Chamber of Deputies (Brazil)


The Chamber of Representatives is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. The chamber comprises 513 representatives, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms. The current President of the Chamber is the Representative Rodrigo Maia, who was reelected on February 1, 2019.

Legislatures

The legislatures are counted from the first meeting of the Chamber of Representatives and of the Senate, on 6 May 1826, in the imperial era. The Chamber of Representatives and the Senate were created by Brazil's first Constitution, the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil, adopted in 1824. The numbering of the legislatures is continuous and counts all bicameral legislatures elected since the adoption of the 1824 Constitution including the imperial General Assembly and the republican National Congress. The previous constituent and legislative assembly of the Empire of Brazil, a unicameral national assembly convened in 1823 and dissolved by Emperor Pedro I before the Constitution was adopted, is not counted. The inauguration of a new composition of Chamber of Representatives for a four-year term of office marks the start of a new Legislature.
In the imperial era the national legislature was named General Assembly. It was made up of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. Senators were elected for life and the Senate was a permanent institution, whereas the Chamber of Representatives, unless dissolved earlier, was elected every four years. When Brazil became a republic and a federal state, the model of a bicameral legislature was retained at the federal level, but the parliament was renamed National Congress. The National Congress is made up of the Chamber of Representatives and the Federal Senate. Both houses have fixed terms and cannot be dissolved earlier. Under Brazil's present Constitution, adopted in 1988, senators are elected to eight-year terms and representatives are elected every four years.
Each Brazilian state is represented in the Senate by three senators.
Elections to the Senate are held every four years, with either a third or two thirds of the seats up for election.
The number of representatives elected is proportional to the size of the population of the respective state as of 1994. However, no delegation can be made up of less than eight or more than seventy seats. Thus the least populous state elects eight federal representatives and the most populous elects seventy. These restrictions favour the smaller states at the expense of the more populous states and so the size of the delegations is not exactly proportional to population.
Elections to the Chamber of Representatives are held every four years, with all seats up for election.
Empire of Brazil
Old Republic
Vargas Era
Legislatures elected under the Republic of 46
Legislatures elected under the Military Regime
Legislatures elected after the restoration of civilian government
The number of seats per state is distributed according to the number of inhabitants per state, according to the official measurement taken by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics through a census held each 10 years. The Brazilian population is represented by one representative for each 362,013 inhabitants on average, but this proportionality is limited by having a minimum of eight members and a maximum of seventy members per state, these criteria being subject to an apportionment paradox.
Therefore, states with 3,258,117 inhabitants upwards have 9 to 70 representatives. Following this scenario for example the city of São Paulo with its 11,253,503 inhabitants is represented by 31 representatives of the total members of the state and the rest of the state with its 28,670,588 inhabitants are represented by 39 MPs.
There is a distorted representation of the Brazilian states in congress, having some groups of representatives representing on average more than the proportion of the population of the state, and others representing less. That proportionality means that Roraima is represented by a representative for every 51,000 inhabitants and, at the other extreme, São Paulo is represented by one representative for every 585,000 inhabitants. This difference is reflected in the representation of the states in the Brazilian Congress, where some states are over-represented, such as Roraima, with 681% of the population represented by their congressmen, and other states are under represented, such as the state of São Paulo, with 63% of the population represented by their congressmen. The proportionality is calculated through the division of the percentage of representatives of a state in the chamber by the percentage of the population of such state in the nation. The population of the state of São Paulo, for instance, elects only 70 representatives to the Chamber, because of the maximum limits of 70 congressmen by state, but it should have 40 more seats.
Federal stateNumber of members% Of total membersPopulation % Of the population Representativeness Representatives of national average% Representative distortion% Of the population represented by MPsRepresentatives required ignoring the limits
São Paulo7013.6%39,924,09121.5%570,344110-7.90%63%40
Minas Gerais5310.3%19,159,26010.3%361,495530.00%100%0
Rio de Janeiro469%15,180,6368.2%330,014420.80%110%-4
Bahia397.6%13,633,9697.3%349,589380.30%104%-1
Rio Grande do Sul316%10,576,7585.7%341,186290.30%106%-2
Paraná305.8%10,226,7375.5%340,891280.30%106%-2
Pernambuco254.9%8,541,2504.6%341,650240.30%106%-1
Ceará224.3%8,450,5274.4%371,82223-0.10%94%1
Maranhão183.5%6,424,3403.5%356,908180.00%101%0
Goiás173.3%5,849,1053.1%344,065160.20%105%-1
Pará173.3%7,443,9044%437,87721-0.70%83%4
Santa Catarina163.1%6,178,6033.3%386,16317-0.20%94%1
Paraíba122.3%3,753,6332%312,803100.30%116%-2
Espírito Santo101.9%3,392,7751.8%339,27890.10%107%-1
Piauí101.9%3,086,4481.7%308,64590.20%117%-1
Alagoas91.7%3,093,9941.7%343,77790.00%105%0
Acre81.6%707,1250.4%88,39121.20%410%-6
Amazonas81.6%3,350,7731.8%418,8479-0.20%86%1
Amapá81.6%648,5530.3%81,06921.30%447%-6
Distrito Federal81.6%2,469,4891.3%308,68670.30%117%-1
Mato Grosso do Sul81.6%2,404,2561.3%300,53270.30%120%-1
Mato Grosso81.6%2,954,6251.6%369,32880.00%98%0
Rio Grande do Norte81.6%3,121,4511.7%390,1819-0.10%93%1
Rondônia81.6%1,535,6250.8%191,95340.80%189%-4
Roraima81.6%425,3980.2%53,17511.40%681%-7
Sergipe81.6%2,036,2271.1%254,52860.50%142%-2
Tocantins81.6%1,373,5510.7%171,69440.90%211%-4
Total513100%185,712,713100%362,013 514 0.30% accumulated 156% average 1

Present composition


Partisan blocs composition

Bodies

The House of Representatives is composed of the Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives of Brazil by College Leaders and the Commissions, which can be permanent, temporary, or special inquiry.

Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives of Brazil

The current composition of the Board of the Chamber of Representatives is the following:
President: Rodrigo Maia

1st Vice President: Marcos Pereira

2nd Vice President: Luciano Bivar

1st Secretary: Soraya Santos

2nd Secretary: Mário Heringer

3rd Secretary: Fábio Faria

4th Secretary: André Fufuca

1st Secretary Substitute: Rafael Motta

2nd Secretary Substitute: Geovania de Sá

3rd Secretary Substitute: Isnaldo Bulhões Jr.

4th Secretary Substitute: Assis Carvalho

Standing committees

On March 6 of 2012, was defined division of committees between parties. The President's House, Marco Maia, believes that the proportionality between the parties / blocs must take into account the data of the last election. Thus, PT and PMDB, with the highest benches, were three committees. DEM and PSDB, the two largest opposition, were two commissions each. On the other hand, PSD, most harmed by this decision, filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court trying to reverse this decision.
The chair of the committee, was defined as follows:
CommitteeChair
Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural DevelopmentFausto Pinato
Consumer DefenceJoão Maia
Constitution, Justice and CitizenshipFelipe Francischini
CultureBenedita da Silva
Defense of Women RightsLuisa Canziani
Defense of Elderly RightsLídice da Mata
Defense of People with Disabilities RightsGilberto Nascimento
Economic Development, Industry, Trade and ServicesBosco Saraiva
EducationPedro Cunha Lima
Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentRoberto Agostinho
Finances and TaxationSergio Souza
Financial Supervision and ControlLéo Motta
Foreign Affairs and National DefenceEduardo Bolsonaro
Human Rights and MinoritiesHelder Salomão
Labor, Administration and Public ServiceProfessora Marcivania
Mines and EnergySilas Câmara
National Integration, Regional Development and AmazonÁtila Lins
Participative LegislationLeonardo Monteiro
Public Security and Fight Against Organized CrimeCapitão Augusto
Roads and TransportsEli Corrêa Filho
Science and Technology, Communication and ComputingFelix Mendonça Junior
Social Security and FamilyAntonio Brito
SportsFábio Mitidieri
TourismNewton Cardoso Junior
Urban DevelopmentMarco Feliciano