The legislative caucuses reached a consensus in the second round of cross-caucus negotiations yesterday afternoon on the handling of budget bills for state-owned businesses, after a Legislative Yuan staff member was admitted for medical care on Wednesday night following an around-the-clock session that started on Tuesday afternoon.
The legislature on Tuesday began a marathon session that is scheduled to continue until midnight tonight to vote on more than 1,000 budget-slashing proposals proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus due to the KMT’s refusal to negotiate with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
After the collapse of the female clerk, the legislature on Wednesday night resolved to temporarily adjourn the meeting and resume it yesterday morning.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
However, the first round of negotiations yesterday morning failed to reach a consensus, with the KMT demanding an arrangement for state-owned enterprises representatives to present their cases to the Legislative Yuan to facilitate further talks on the budget bills.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the caucus would not retract the budget-slashing motions it has proposed.
He added that the party would stand its ground on voting through each individual proposal until the leadership of the state-owned businesses initiates talks with KMT legislators.
The caucus is still waiting to meet with the presidents and chief executive officers of state-owned businesses, who had not come to discuss their budget proposals with lawmakers since the beginning of last month, he said.
Lin said that the KMT was playing by the rules and that its intentions are to “ensure that taxpayers’ money is put to good use.”
The KMT’s call for four votes to be conducted on each proposal to cut a budget has brought the Legislative Yuan to a standstill, as there are more than 1,000 proposals that have yet to be voted on, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
“We are willing to work with the KMT on any proposal they want to talk about or want for more oversight on,” Ker said, calling for unity to restore functionality to the Legislative Yuan.
DPP caucus secretary-general Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said audio and visual recordings of the cross-caucus negotiations are available and the process would be transparent, adding that the DPP is willing to work with the KMT on the issue.
The caucuses undertook another round of negotiations in the afternoon and concluded that the session would run through tomorrow and end at 6pm, adding that all unresolved issues would be slated for sessions meetings, pending the next legislative session.
The caucuses also agreed to retract similar or repeated motions and to have executive departments communicate with each caucus concerning the budget bills.
According to the resolution reached by the second negotiation, voting on each bill would be limited to two votes — a vote and a revote of approval, which means that the KMT caucus would not propose a vote and a revote on whether a roll call is to be used.
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