The Government of Javier Milei moved forward with a new phase of its deregulation agenda by sending to Congress the bill known as the “Leaf Leaves”, an initiative that proposes to eliminate more than 70 rules considered obsolete, unnecessary or incompatible with the current constitutional framework.
The project is promoted by the Minister of Deregulation, Federico Sturzenegger, and takes up a proposal that had already been presented in 2024 but which lost parliamentary status. The new version expands the scope of the analysis and seeks to advance a structural problem of the Argentine legal system: the accumulation of rules that, far from ordering, generate obstacles, costs and distortions
. “Leaf litter” is a reference to a collection of dead flowers and vegetables.
As detailed in the official text, the initiative reviews legislation in force from 1864 to the present and establishes six criteria for identifying rules to be eliminated. These include laws that have been superseded by more modern ones, provisions that are anachronistic in the face of technological progress, and regulations that directly affect individual liberties or
contradict constitutional principles.
Excessive regulation has not only increased bureaucracy historically, but it has also been used as a tool to restrict legitimate activities or sustain unjustified privileges within the State. Within this framework, the “Hojarasca Law” aims to simplify the legal system and restore predictability to citizens
and companies.
Among the most striking examples included in the project are regulations on the microfilming of documents in the Armed Forces, provisions related to the authorization of color television or even the requirement of a special card for backpackers, a rule that dates back to the 1970s. Laws are also identified that create bodies that never worked or that were dissolved decades ago, but that are still formally in force.
Javier Milei with Federico Struzenegger.
Another central axis of the reform is the elimination of rules that impose unnecessary bureaucratic burdens. Among them, the obligation to register maps for commercial uses or the creation of funds and commissions that have no real activity. Along the same lines, the project seeks to eliminate exclusive benefits for certain political sectors, such as circulation privileges or state funding to specific entities
.
The sending of the “Leaf Leaf Law” to Congress is part of a broader strategy of structural reforms promoted by the Milei administration, aimed at deregulating the economy and reducing the burden of the State. Now, the debate and the approval of the law will remain in the hands of the Legislative Branch
