The Government of Javier Milei achieved a new legislative advance in the Senate with the ruling on the Hojarasca Law, one of the central initiatives of the Ministry of Deregulation and State Transformation, led by Federico Sturzenegger.
The project, which already has partial approval from the Chamber of Deputies, proposes to repeal or modify more than 60 regulations considered obsolete, bureaucratic, or directly out of use. The initiative is ready to be addressed in the chamber, where the ruling party will seek to turn it into law.
The initiative had already received preliminary approval in the Chamber of Deputies.
La Libertad Avanza managed to gather the necessary support with the backing of the PRO, the UCR, and allied provincial blocs. In the Deputies, the proposal was approved with 138 affirmative votes, 96 negative votes, and 9 abstentions, reflecting significant backing for one of the government's deregulatory reforms.
The ruling party defended the initiative as a tool to organize the Argentine legal system, reduce unnecessary regulations, and move towards a more efficient state. Senator Nadia Márquez stated that the Hojarasca Law “is not about taking away rights, but about eliminating obsolete regulations that no longer serve any real function.”
As was to be expected, Peronism again resisted the advance of a reform aimed at reducing state bureaucracy and simplifying the lives of Argentines. Convicción Federal and the Justicialist bloc presented their own rulings, with partial objections and requests to address some repeals separately.
The laws the Government seeks to eliminate
One of the project's focuses is to repeal regulations that restrict individual freedoms or that respond to a completely outdated state logic. Among them are laws that punished Argentines for reporting human rights violations abroad, regulations from military governments that controlled newspaper content or imposed cultural content, and provisions that allowed for detentions under the pretext of “background checks.”
It also includes regulations that allowed state intervention in private meetings, controls over technology transfer, restrictions on media ownership, and bizarre requirements such as needing authorization to use maps of the country in commercial products.
Javier Milei alongside Minister Federico Sturzenegger
Another block targets norms that have lost meaning over time or due to technological advancement. This includes provisions from the 19th century with tax benefits that have no current justification, administrative obligations like the microfilming of documents, regulations that have already been replaced by modern frameworks, and even a law that authorized color television.
The initiative also seeks to eliminate structures with no real utility, public funds with no verifiable impact, programs that were never regulated, and non-existent or duplicated agencies. In that same vein, it proposes to review state funding for political and corporate entities, such as the Circle of Legislators and the Argentine Federation of Municipalities, so they no longer depend on public resources.
