The Senate session to discuss the 2026 budget promised to last late into the night, both because of the scale of the conflict between the ruling party and Peronism and because of the Efforts against the clock that the government was forced to stand down to try to maintain the controversy Article 30 on minimum resources for education and sciencesomething they wanted to achieve in the last few hours.
As the President of the Senate, Victoria Villarruelopened the session, there were 47 senators present in the room. The ruling party thus easily achieved a quorum (37 people present), thereby confirming that it already has enough votes to generally pass the 2026 budget. However, the uncertainty particularly affected the vote.
He Article 30 of the Expenditure and Resources Project removes sensitive points in the laws that set funding floors for national educationthe science and technology system, professional technical education and the National Defense Fund. The most sensitive aspect is the abolition of the lower limit of 6% of GDP for the education budget.
The greatest interest of the government of Javier Milei is that the budget becomes law without further delay, but any change, no matter how slight, would force a return to the Chamber of Deputies. Therefore, the central goal of the LLA is to support this article when it comes time for the relevant vote. “The numbers are finite” recognized an official source iProfessional about it.
When the budget treatment finally began, LLA managed to enforce as a mechanism for the meeting that after the general vote on the project, it would be voted on a chapter-by-chapter basis rather than article by articleas claimed by the Peronist bank. The ruling party won this battle by 39 votes to 33, thereby taking a hint at its goal: if this number were repeated, the controversial article would be adopted.
Budget 2026: The government’s negotiations to prevent it from returning to MPs
In fact, this is just an indication, because during the debate in the Chamber of Deputies last week Martin Menem and the LLA allies used the same tactics to protect the article repealing university funding and emergency disability laws, but ultimately the entire Chapter XI was rejected. Now is the one who is in the spotlight Chapter IIwhich contains Article 30.
For this reason, despite the fact that the bloc led by Patricia Bullrich gained allies for the introduction of a vote by chapter, thus making the rejection of this article more difficult, the government opened a negotiation against time. A parliamentary source failed iProfessional who warned several governors that they would go into debt abroad if they had the nation’s guarantee The budget must be approved unchanged and without further changes.
According to other sourcesThe governing party was now not only aiming for yes votes, but also abstentions if necessary (who are considered absent in the Senate) in order to more easily reach the simple majority (half plus one of those present) required to support Article 30.
The negotiations are so delicate and the difference between victory and defeat for LLA is so great that the Interior Minister, Diego Santilli, In the afternoon, he went to the Senate to meet with Bullrich in his first-floor office and coordinate strategy for the vote, scheduled for 10 p.m.
And the problem for the LLA is that this article is rejected not only by the 28 senators who make up the Peronist bench, but also by some members of allied blocs such as the UCR. Among the 10 radicals Maximiliano Abad and Flavio Fama They announced that they would vote in favor in principle, but would reject this point.
In fact, Abad and Fama were among the 33 who opposed the plan to vote specifically by chapter rather than by article. Also present were the radical Daniel Kroneberger and the Santa Cruz residents José Carambi and Natalia Gadano.
How is the budget vote going in the Senate?
The governing party is confident that it will approve the 2026 budget as a whole. He believes he will start with a minimum of 41 votes, more than enough. They reached this number with the sum of their 21 senators (including Enzo Fullon, sworn in at the beginning of the session to replace the resigned Lorena Villaverde, and Luis Juez), the 10 from the UCR, the three from the PRO and a large group of senators allied with the governors.
The LLA also included the missionaries in this band of provincial allies Carlos Arce and Sonia Rojas Decut; Flavia Royón from Salta; Julieta Corroza of Neuquén; Edith Terenzi from Chubut; Beatriz Ávila from Tucumán and also Carlos “Camau” Espínola from Corrientes, one of the most stable allies.
However, in this vote he would lose at least the three radicals mentioned, which would leave him at 38. However, various parliamentary sources reported this afternoon that at least two of those three senators would rather abstain than vote against.
As for the provincial blocs, their positioning will depend on the success of the Casa Rosada in negotiations with the governors. However, The senators of La Libertad Avanza were confident that they could comply with Article 30 and achieve the final sanction of the law.
Dollars, Inflation and Spending: What the Project Says and Why It Matters to the Government
Milei ruled without a budget in his first year because he reached an agreement with Sergio Massa in 2023 (his rival for the runoff election) is suspending consideration of the project until the next president is chosen. The surprise of his victory led him to expand the previous year’s law and administer items by decree and delegated authority.
In 2024, the ruling party directly withdrew its spending and revenue project, arguing that the opposition wanted to push through changes that would lead to a budget deficit. This year, Milei finally moved forward with the 2026 budget, partly because he had won more seats in the midterm elections and mostly because of pressure from the IMF and the United States to demonstrate “governance.”
The governors also want Milei to receive its first budget law, which includes a clearer reference to the government’s economic framework and the distribution of resources between provinces. The project determines the total current and capital expenditures of the National State projects $148 billion in 2026 and expects a financial surplus of $2.7 billion.
Aside from that, The text assumes annual inflation of 10.1% for December 2026economic growth of 5%, a primary budget surplus of 2.2% of GDP and one dollar at $1,423. For the opposition, these estimates are “absolutely contradictory,” said the Peronist. Jorge Captainich in the debate after pointing out that economists had different forecasts.
The budget became the government’s top priority after difficulties in getting it approved by MPs. Bullrich decided to postpone the debate on labor reform in order to concentrate all efforts on Milei receiving the budget law for the first time.
The goal is shared by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Luis Caputowhat this “achievement” needs to show the IMF and the financial market, especially given the debt maturities in January.
Fuel taxes and sensitive points for education and science
As for the trade balance, The 2026 budget envisages a 10.6% increase in exports and an 11% increase in imports. On the other hand, the project exempts diesel imports from paying taxes on liquid fuels and carbon dioxide.
This measure also extends to commercialization on the domestic market in 2026 to cover peaks in energy demand that cannot be covered by local production. The tax exemption for renewable energies will also be extended until 2045.
In addition, the text repeals articles of various laws related to the financing of education, science and defense. Among them is the one that forces the state to allocate at least 6% of GDP to the education system. This point will be finalized at this Friday’s meeting: if it is rejected, the project will go back to the MPs.
For The 2026 budget for national universities includes $4,872 millionbut colleges warn that this represents a decline compared to 2025 in the order of 7%.
In this context, the session in the Senate moved forward with the aim of voting on the 2026 budget during the night. Then the Tax Innocence Initiative, better known as “pillow dollars,” is discussed. However, for Javier Milei’s government, the priority is to pass the spending and resources law to end the year with a victory and a signal to the IMF and the markets.
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