Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved on Tuesday the federal government’s 2026 budget proposal, a package that outlines expenditure of almost 10.2 trillion pesos.
The dominance of the ruling Morena party and its allies in the Chamber of Deputies ensured the approval of the spending bill en lo general, or in general broad-brush terms.
A total of 358 Morena, Green Party and Labor Party deputies voted in favor of the bill, while 133 opposition lawmakers opposed it.
More than 1,700 individual items in the budget proposal will be considered by deputies on Wednesday and Thursday, and some adjustments to the spending plan are expected. Separate votes will be held on proposed amendments to individual budget items.
Federal Finance Minister Edgar Amador presented the 10.19 trillion-peso (US $547.8 billion) spending proposal to the Chamber of Deputies in September. The proposed outlay represents a 5.9% increase compared to the 2025 budget.
In a speech to the lower house of Congress on Sept. 8, Amador said that “the 2026 Economic Package is a roadmap to build a stronger, more competitive, and fairer Mexico.”
“At its center is the conviction that guides our government: ‘For the good of all, the poor come first.’ With this vision, public finances become a tool to reduce inequalities, expand opportunities, and ensure that growth reaches every region,” he said.
The 2026 Economic Package proposes spending of 987.16 billion pesos (US $53 billion) on welfare programs, an increase of 18% compared to this year.
Opposition criticizes spending proposal
Deputies from the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Citizens Movement (MC) party voted against the proposed 2026 budget.
They claimed that the government is prioritizing handouts to people via welfare programs over their rights to health care, public security, education and water.
PAN Deputy Héctor Saúl Téllez described the proposed budget as “completely insensitive,” criticizing spending cuts in the area of public security at a time when violence remains a major problem in various parts of Mexico, including Michoacán, where the mayor of Uruapan was assassinated last Saturday.
He said that a 10-billion-peso cut to overall security spending — although spending on some security items in the budget will increase — “confirms that there is an absent and inactive state” that is “permissive with insecurity and organized crime.”
Among other remarks, Téllez was critical of “a 5-billion-peso cut” in spending on “free medicines” that are supplied to patients treated in the IMSS-Bienestar public health care system.
Morena Deputy Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar noted that overall spending on health care will in fact increase in 2026.
PRI Deputy Rubén Moreira asserted that the 2026 budget proposal “doesn’t address the big problems” Mexico faces, but rather “hurts” the country.
He advocated for additional funding to be allocated to municipalities for security, and for the salaries of police officers to be increased.
Low salaries for police — especially at the municipal level — make officers more susceptible to corruption and collusion with organized crime.
MC Deputy Eduardo Gahona Domínguez highlighted that a budget deficit of 4.1% of GDP is projected in 2026. But even though government spending will be higher than revenue next year, “there are no incentives for the countryside, or real support for entrepreneurs and small businesses” in the proposed budget, he asserted.
Even though the government is allocating hundreds of billions of pesos to build a range of infrastructure projects, including new railroads, the MC lawmaker claimed that there is no public investment “that creates jobs.”
With reports from El Financiero, El Economista and Expansión
