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Investigation Bureau bill passes

The bill for the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau passed a third reading on the legislative floor yesterday, paving the way for the bureau's size and scope of investigation to be expanded.

Under the law, all investigators will become "senior investigators." The bureau will also be empowered to recruit 300 more staff members and station staff at major overseas offices.

Once the bill is signed into law, the bureau will be empowered to investigate, among others, cases involving treason, corruption, bribery, economic crime, narcotics, computer crime, organized crime, international cooperation, cross-strait intelligence and matters of national security.

The bureau will be expanded from seven departments to 15 and will be allowed to request assistance from the judicial system and police agencies.

The expansion of the bureau has raised concerns that its authority might overlap with that of the National Security Bureau, but the law was nonetheless passed without objections.

Lawmakers also approved amendments to the Organic Law of the Bureau of Labor Insurance (勞工保險局組織條例), providing legal basis for a new department to oversee the national pension program from Oct. 1.

Council of Labor Affairs Deputy Chairman Tsao Ai-lan (曹愛蘭) had long urged the legislature to pass the amendments, arguing that the establishment of the National Pension Affairs department was crucial to the oversight of a pension scheme to which an estimated 4 million people will belong.

To accommodate the reduction of the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113 next year, the Legislative Yuan yesterday also passed amendments to the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法), the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan`s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Organic Law of Committees of the Legislative Yuan (立法院各委員會組織法).

The amendments reduced the number of legislative committees from 12 to eight: interior affairs; foreign affairs and national defense; economy; finance; education and culture; transportation; justice and health, environment and labor affairs.

As the legislature failed to reach a consensus on what would constitute a caucus, this will be discussed during next legislative session.

Meanwhile, although the legislature did not discuss the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) proposed amendments to the Organic Law of the Central Election Commission (中央選舉委員會組織法) yesterday, KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said the caucus would push for their passage before the legislative session ends this month.

The KMT wants to amend the law to counter the government's proposed one-step voting process for the Jan. 12 legislative elections and referendums.

The KMT's proposal that commission members be selected based on the number of seats held by each political party in the legislature failed to pass in June because of a pan-green camp boycott.

The dispute led to several physical scuffles on the legislative floor.
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