President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva signed Monday a request for the country’s Congress to recognize a state of public calamity in Rio Grande do Sul, a region in the south of Brazil, until December 31, 2024, amid massive floods that have caused considerable damage.

The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Brazil’s Congress, approved the legislative decree request later that day, but it still needs to be approved by the Senate to become effective. The President of the Chamber Arthur Lira stated that the next step once the legislative decree is adopted will be to call the Governor of Rio Grande do Sul to take the measures and open extraordinary credit needed to speed up the reconstruction of the state.

Approval of the state of public calamity will allow government spending and use of federal resources exclusively for the region of Rio Grande do Sul outside the spending ceiling within the framework of the 2024 fiscal target. This is a fiscal framework adopted by the Brazilian government to prevent an escalation of its public debt.

The legislative decree is based on Article 65 of the fiscal responsibility law.  It aims at facilitating the transfer of funds to flooded cities to finance relief operations, assistance to victims, restoration of essential services and infrastructure without having to comply with certain obligations, including tax obligations.

Rio Grande Do Sul has been hit by heavy rain storms since April 27 that have killed 85 people so far and displaced around 150 thousand people, with 111 missing according to the country’s Civil Defence. Additionally, the floods destroyed bridges and roads in several municipalities and caused cuts in electricity and communications. The state’s governor Eduardo Leite said that what the flooded region went through was unprecedented and that a “Marshall Plan” is needed to rebuild.