The Fourth Senate Committee will be responsible for studying the labor reform after its resurrection.

In a letter to Senate Secretary Diego González, Senate President Efraín Cepeda confirmed the committee that will take on the labor reform debate, recently revived by the plenary session. It will be the Fourth Committee, one of the Senate's two economic committees.

"I kindly request that you process the bill accordingly (...) by forwarding it to the Senate's Fourth Permanent Constitutional Committee for review and processing," reads the communication signed by Cepeda.

The Fourth Commission has a mixed composition: there are several opposition members, but also some sympathetic ones. However, the most recent precedent for the government in this commission was the rejection of the budget presented by the Petro administration at the end of 2024.

There were doubts about which committee the bill would be sent to. Some called for it to be the First Committee, where the government held a majority. There were also economic committees. It was precisely one of these that the bill ended up being assigned to.

The Gustavo Petro administration's proposal will not have an easy path. Added to the already complex political situation stemming from the defeat in the referendum and the confrontational climate that has worsened in the Senate, partly due to President Petro's own statements, is the limited timeframe it would have for approval.

The bill has less than five weeks—until June 20—to clear the two pending debates: first in committee and then in plenary. Furthermore, within this short timeframe, the texts will also need to be reconciled, further reducing the timeframe.

That is, the government will have just 36 days to align its forces in the legislature, something that, given the circumstances, seems difficult. "The reform is failing due to a combination of factors, ranging from the handling of the legislative process to the government's inability to secure the necessary majorities," said analyst Gabriel Cifuentes.

Juan Sebastian Lombo Delgado