The major legislative caucuses yesterday remained at loggerheads over the special budget requested by the Cabinet to fund two job-creation projects, dimming its chances of being adopted before the session ends on Jan. 14.
The largest opposition caucus, that of the KMT, said it would agree to put the two measures through directly to their second readings but demanded that Premier Yu Shyi-kun personally brief the legislature on the programs and take questions from lawmakers next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the PFP continued to protest attempts to do away with committee review of the bills at issue.
Earlier last month, the government unveiled two policy initiatives designed to provide 115,000 one-year employment opportunities in public construction projects and services.
To pay for the programs, the Cabinet has requested a total of NT$70 billion in special budgets and urged the legislature to give its go-ahead by the end of this legislative session.
KMT legislative whip Lee Chuan-chia (李全教) said he would give the Cabinet NT$100 billion if the funding is categorized as "extra" rather than "special" budgets.
"The KMT would grant the Cabinet NT$100 billion to battle unemployment if it applies for the funding through normal procedures," Lee told reporters. "We will treat the issue as top priority when the legislature returns from the winter recess."
As a special budget, the requested fund would not be subject to the debt limit. The Cabinet has set up hotlines for unemployed people to register for jobs to be created partly in a bid to put pressure on the lawmaking body, the opposition has charged.
The move earlier prompted Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to pan the government for seeking to twist the arm of the legislature in violation of the spirit of checks and balances.
Lee said the KMT caucus would also endorse the skipping of committee review for the job-creation measures on condition the premier informs the legislature of his policy goals and take questions from lawmakers next Tuesday.
"The KMT would not allow the Cabinet to do whatever it likes to," he said.
The two projects, borrowed from the South Korean experience, aim to serve as a "temporary shelter" for the unemployed until the government turns the economy around.
Workers who are thus employed are urged to seek additional vocational training so they may find long-term jobs after the programs expire one year later when unemployment indexes are expected to drop to 4.5 percent from the current 5.22 percent.
DPP lawmaker Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜) said South Korea owed its prompt economic recovery in part to similar job-creation programs following the regional financial crisis of 1997.
RSS