Opposition parties yesterday stifled attempts by the Cabinet to accelerate passage of two job-creation programs, sending the bills to committee for review instead of directly to the second reading.
It appears unlikely, if not impossible, the Cabinet will be able to implement the provisional measures before the Lunar New Year, though the ruling DPP has vowed to push for the measures to be passed before the session ends on Jan. 14.
Meanwhile, TSU lawmakers accused their KMT and PFP counterparts of stalling the review of the budget in an attempt to blackmail Cabinet officials.
Following several rounds of cross-party negotiations, the law-making body ruled to forward the two bills to four committees for review before further legislative action may be taken on them.
The Cabinet had hoped to skip the committee review stage and pass the bills straight to the second reading.
The two job-creation measures, with a total cost of NT$70 billion, aim to provide 115,000 one-year employment opportunities in public construction projects and services.
The KMT legislative caucus again voiced concerns about funding for the bills. The Cabinet wants the measures paid for with "special" budgets, which would exempt them from legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow.
Under public debt rules, the government can borrow up to 15 percent of its annual budget for various spending programs. Currently, the deficit makes up 14.8 percent of the budget.
"I suggest that the Cabinet pay for the two projects with emergency funds at its disposal and request the funding at issue through regular procedures in the next session," KMT legislative whip Lee Chuan-chia (
"If necessary, we may also consider raising the debt limit in the spring," Lee said.
The two bills will be reviewed on Monday by four legislative committees: economics and energy; home and nation; budget and final accounts; and sanitation, environment and social welfare.
PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (
The second-largest opposition party has slammed the programs as yet another ploy by the DPP administration to woo supporters for the 2004 presidential election with tax dollars.
"By spreading the cost among the public, the DPP government has repeatedly sought to plunder average taxpayers to help support the disadvantaged," Chiu said. "The problem is that things will remain unchanged when the programs expire one after a year."
Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang said he has had trouble resolving disagreements among the legislative caucuses, which completed reviewing only 50 percent of the 2003 budget, leaving more than 500 items awaiting cross-party negotiations.
The TSU caucus, irritated at being passed over during earlier inter-party discussions, said their KMT and PFP colleagues purposely dragged out the budgetary review to pressure Cabinet officials into sharing their right to award public-works contracts.
Legislative whips from the two parties denounced the charge as groundless and threatened legal action to punish rumormongers.
The speaker, seeking to placate both camps, advised against emotional speeches that he feared would further retard legislative efficiency.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique