Argentina's Congress is gearing up to push through a broad package of economic, regulatory and political reforms promoted by President Javier Milei's administration, calculating that the public's attention is fixed less on Casa Rosada than on Kansas City.

On the night of June 16, Lionel Messi scored the first hat-trick of his World Cup career as Argentina, the reigning champions, opened their title defence with a 3-0 win over Algeria, becoming the first South American side to collect three points at the tournament. With jubilant supporters in Buenos Aires still absorbed by the result, the government's legislative timetable shows it intends to use the distraction to its advantage, advancing several priority bills before the mid-year recess, Buenos Aires Times reported.

Measures expected to move before lawmakers break include a new investment incentive framework, deregulation initiatives, debt-related legislation and changes to property rights.

Top of the government's list is approval of the so-called "Super RIGI" investment incentive scheme, designed to attract large-scale capital inflows, alongside legislation to resolve outstanding obligations to two holdout creditors linked to Argentina's 2001 sovereign default. That debt settlement proposal has already cleared the Senate and now awaits debate in the Chamber of Deputies.

The libertarian administration is also pressing ahead with the "Ley Hojarasca," a deregulation package championed by Deregulation and State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger. The bill has already secured initial backing in the lower house and has begun committee discussions in the Senate.

Property-related reforms are similarly close to reaching the floor. The proposed changes would rewrite rules governing expropriations, evictions and land ownership, including scrapping long-standing restrictions on foreign ownership of rural land, as part of a wider drive to attract investment and liberalise markets.

Further down the agenda are bills to address digital gambling addiction and repeal front-of-package food labelling requirements. Neither has yet entered committee, however, raising the prospect that debate on both could slip until after the World Cup final.

Attention is then expected to turn, in the second half of the year, to electoral reform. Officials are weighing alternatives to scrapping Argentina's PASO primary elections outright, having concluded there is insufficient congressional support for outright abolition; suspending the system or making participation voluntary are both under review.

That broader electoral package would also fold in anti-corruption measures under the "Ficha Limpia" initiative, tighter rules on political party registration, limits on public campaign financing paired with expanded room for private donations, an end to free broadcast campaign advertising, changes to Argentina's paper ballot system, and the scrapping of mandatory presidential debates.

Later additions to the docket include a new mental health law that would grant psychiatrists greater authority over involuntary hospitalisation decisions, alongside renewed pushes to reform university funding and disability-related legislation, both perennial flashpoints in Argentina's ongoing budgetary disputes.