President Javier Milei’s flagship state, economic, labor, and pension reforms will be approved by Congress in July, according to Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos. The bill — known as Ley Bases — must still be voted on in the Senate. If it passes, it will return to the lower house for a final debate.

“We will have it [done] in July,” said the former interior minister and newly appointed chief of staff on Sunday night during an interview with LN+ news channel. While there is no official date for the Senate session yet, sources from the ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza in Congress told the Herald it could be held on June 12 or 13.

Along with the Ley Bases, a fiscal package — which was originally part of the bill but has since been spun off separately — is also being put to a vote.

Francos led a series of tense negotiations with governors and the opposition from February to April 30, the day the deputies approved the bills. The negotiations took place in the Senate for a month until commissions reached an agreement for a final version last week.

The process turned out to be much longer than the government had hoped. Originally, Milei wanted the Ley Bases to be approved by May 25 — a national holiday during which he intended to sign a political pact with the nation’s governors in exchange for more funding from the federal government. That pact could finally be signed in July.

The bill that is now being debated is much shorter than its original version, which had over 600 articles and received preliminary approval by deputies between January and February. That version was ultimately sent back to commissions after the ruling coalition failed to gather support for the article-by-article vote. Francos admitted the original bill may have been too large, “and maybe that’s what led to a failed [first] attempt.”

“You try to learn from your mistakes and change, improve, and understand the opposition,” he said. “We worked in the lower house for three months and another month in the Senate. We have improved the bill’s text. We might not agree on some things, but this is the game of politics.”

Both the Ley Bases — also known as the omnibus bill — and the fiscal package are designed to deregulate several aspects of the Argentine economy. Their aim is to encourage imports at the expense  of local industries, overturn a pension moratorium that has allowed thousands of senior citizens to retire, and modify several aspects of  current job hiring practicess such as extending the probationary period from three to six months. 

The legislation also pushes harsher punishments on union protests in the place of work and allows the privatization of several public companies.