Brazil's Senate: Navigating Procedural Rules with AI

As most parliaments grapple with how to incorporate AI into their legislative processes, Brazil’s Senate is leading the development of a new tool to help staffers consult and apply legislative procedures in committees and on the floor. The tool uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to answer questions about points of order based on the Constitution, the Senate’s Rulebook, and existing procedural interpretations.

When asked a question, the tool offers two output options: “hypotheses and conclusions” or a “detailed exploration.” In simulations, we tested both:

First, we asked if bills with approved urgency motions can be included on the plenary agenda for discussion and vote in the same session. The tool provided a hypothesis favoring inclusion, another opposing it, and a suggested conclusion.

Next, we explored the minimum time interval between voting on a constitutional amendment proposal in a committee and on the floor. The result cited specific provisions from the Senate Rulebook and offered insights for determining the interval — three or five days.

For staffers, this tool could save time spent researching points of order, especially those from rules issued from 1971 to 2000, which are only available in lengthy PDFs. The plan is to first test with staffers working with the Senate's Steering Committee, including its president, in the coming months. “Staffers won't be obligated to follow AI recommendations but should use them as a decision-making tool,” explains João Lima, a legislative information technology analyst in the Senate.

Lima also highlighted two other AI applications in the legislative body. The first helps staffers classify earmarks for submission to the Budget Committee by various criteria, including function and subfunction. This tool is being tested and is expected to be adopted by the Senate and the National Congress in 2025.

The second AI tool assists legislative consultants in summarizing credit bills, which the Executive branch introduces to authorize unpredictable expenses. “Legislative consultants used to spend two or three days summarizing a bill. AI does it in less than five minutes,” Lima notes, emphasizing the continued need for human oversight to ensure accuracy and reliability.