The Senate on Wednesday included in its agenda for January 15 a bill aimed at expanding the use of food vouchers for the purchase of food in the supermarket, a possibility suspended by government censorship.
This text, already adopted by the National Assembly and which was to be examined in mid-December in the Senate if Michel Barnier’s government had not been overthrown, was included on the agenda of the upper house during a conference of presidents that took place met on Wednesday. evening.
However, the agenda is only set provisionally, pending the appointment of a full government around Prime Minister François Bayrou.
Disagreement over calendar
The law currently only allows certain food products to be purchased at the supermarket with food vouchers until December 31, 2024, and the extension of this exemption did not complete its parliamentary journey in time to come into force before the deadline.
“It is urgent that households can continue purchasing basic food products with their food vouchers until the end of 2025, pending a major reform,” responded the rapporteur of this text from Les Républicains, Marie-Do Aeschlimann.
However, the two chambers of Parliament have not yet agreed on the timetable for the measure: the Assembly voted in favor of an extension until the end of 2026, while the Senate opted for a limit until the end of 2025 during its work on commission. If this version is maintained by the Upper House, the text will have to continue its journey through Parliament again, further postponing its potential promulgation.
Last week, the head of the rebel deputies, Mathilde Panot, asked the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, on Thursday to include this text on the agenda “as soon as possible”, estimating that “censorship (…) It should not prevent Parliament from voting on legislative proposals.
Source: BFM TV
