The last day of the legislative session ended hours ahead of schedule yesterday evening thanks to moves by the opposition to set aside bills until September.
"The current session, started on Feb. 25, had completed 88 items before adjournment and will be resumed on Sept. 5 when it should firstly deal with the confirmation of 15 grand justice nominees," Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The controversial bills set aside include revisions to the Cable Television Law (
DPP Legislator Luo Wen-jia (
Wang rejected Luo's demand that the delay in reviewing the revisions be reconsidered.
Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, blocked the advancement of several proposed revisions dealing with judicial and monetary reform.
"The KMT and PFP earlier delayed the confirmation date for grand justice nominees. They succeeded in slowing down the government's hope of advancing judicial reform by deferring review of revisions to the Judicial Yuan Organization Law (
DPP lawmakers expressed their frustration with the opposition's moves to block pan-green initiated reforms.
"The opposition members attained a goal of postponing bills related to legislative reform by disappearing from final negotiations, despite a multi-party consensus on March 18 identifying bills to be dealt with this session," Ker told reporters.
The legislature also decided to halt reviews of the proposed Resolution Trust Corporation, a special fund that would be used to aid the country's troubled financial system.
Amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
"The PFP gave their explanation for delaying the review by saying they just figured out a need to reconsider their previous position on the amendment after witnessing Beijing's maneuvering with respects to Taiwan on the SARS epidemic," explained Legislator Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), the DPP's representative at negotiations on the statute.
The legislature, under pressure after having cleared only 38 bills prior to yesterday, decided to set aside most controversial items yesterday afternoon and focused on completing dozens of revisions to the National Health Insurance Law (
It also reviewed revisions to the Merchandise Labelling Law (商品標示法) which require merchandisers to label a product with its place of origin.
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