The 66-strong committee will then decide whether the case should go to a vote in the full house.
If a two-thirds majority approves, it then goes to the upper house for an impeachment trial, where another two-thirds majority would force Rousseff from office.
– Economic nosedive –
The world’s seventh biggest economy is already in deepening recession and risks entering recession.
Rousseff has already been unable to get Congressional approval for austerity measures and tax increases that aim to rebalance the budget and restore investor confidence.
That gridlock “will continue and get worse. She can’t approve anything in Congress. She has zero governability,” David Fleischer, a political science professor at Brasilia University, told AFP.
Looking longer term, however, markets welcomed the prospect of a resolution to a crisis that has been dragging on already for months. A Rousseff departure could open the door to the return of a more pro-business president such as Senator Aecio Neves, who was narrowly defeated by Rousseff in her reelection last year.
Rousseff is widely blamed for a lack of leadership during Brazil’s economic drift which has seen third quarter GDP fall 4.5 percent year-on-year.
Petrobras, which is at the center of a huge corruption scandal sucking in politicians and top executives, was among the shares jumping in value in the wake of the impeachment announcement.
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