Brasília, December 3, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Joint Budget Commission begins negotiations today on riders (relatórios setoriais) on the 2003 budget. These riders (also called "emendas") as presented would mean expenditures ten times what the Executive branch originally proposed, beyond entitlement spending. According to a Senate study, a total of 12,800 riders were proposed, totalling expenditures of R$ 72.8 billion (US$20.26 billion. The original budget proposed by the Cardoso administration called for total expenditures (investimentos) of R$7.3 billion (US$2.03 billion) . The commission is expected to have a difficult time deciding on which riders to accept. (AB)