*The president of Brazil’s senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, has presented a bill to renegotiate the debts that state governments owe to the federal government. According to a senate press release, the bill has two core proposals – allowing state governments to use their assets to pay debts and changing the indices used to calculate the interest charges on their debts. The assets that a state government would be allowed to use include shares in companies and judicial credits. The value of the assets would also affect the calculation of interest charges on the debts. Currently, the interest charge equates to the annual inflation rate (Ipca) plus 4%. The bill proposes a possible reduction of this amount on top of inflation. If the state assets to be used for repaying the debt are worth between 10%-20% of the debt, the 4% charge on top of inflation would be lowered to 3%. If the assets are worth more than 20% of the debt, the charge on top of inflation would only be 2%. Pacheco said that the senate is due to fast-track the review of this bill and he expects that it could face a plenary vote within in the next week, before the congressional recess from 18-31 July.