A legislative committee yesterday approved amendments that are part of the government’s efforts to reduce the number of Cabinet agencies, although the odds of passing the amendments during this legislative session remain slim because of the controversial nature of the bill.
The government plans to cut the Executive Yuan’s number of subordinate agencies from 37 to 29.
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday approved the preliminary review of revisions to the Organic Standard Act of Central Government Agencies (中央行政機關組織基準法).
However, committee members reached agreement on only four of the 19 amendments proposed by the Executive Yuan and Examination Yuan. Cross-party negotiations are required to discuss controversial articles before the amendments can be allowed to proceed to a plenary legislative session for approval.
At issue yesterday was whether the revised law would apply to diplomatic agencies. While the Executive Yuan’s draft proposes excluding diplomatic agencies from the downsizing plan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers were against it.
The committee originally decided that the revised law should be applied to diplomatic agencies, but later changed course and ruled that the matted would be held over for inter-party talks.
Yesterday’s meeting got off to a rough start when lawmakers spent an hour bickering over whether they should review amendments to the Organic Standard Act of Central Government Agencies before moving on to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法).
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the committee should wait until amendments to the Organic Standard Act of Central Government Agencies passed the third reading before moving on to revisions to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan.
Ker also demanded that the Executive Yuan send amendments to the Act Governing the Total Number of Civil Servants Employed by Central Government Agencies (中央政府機關總員額法) to the committee for review as soon as possible.
DPP Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) requested that the committee review the Act Governing the Total Number of Civil Servants Employed by Central Government Agencies before the Organic Standard Act of Central Government Agencies.
He said KMT lawmakers should refrain from behaving like pawns of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has urged the legislature to pass amendments to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan during this legislative session.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the Executive Yuan was meddling in the affairs of the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission, which Chen said were supposed to be independent bodies but would become subsidiary agencies of the Executive Yuan under the Cabinet’s version of the draft.
Chen said the amendment would mean that the Consumer Protection Commission would be downgraded to a department and that there would be no gender equality commission under the Executive Yuan’s version.
KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) urged a speedy review of the amendments, saying that a DPP boycott would not help.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit the UK during her ongoing European trip, which originally included only Lithuania and Denmark, her office said today. Tsai departed Taiwan for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark, marking her second visit to the continent since her two-term presidency ended in May last year. Her office issued a statement today saying that Tsai would also visit the UK "for a few days," during which she is to meet with UK politicians and Taiwanese professionals, and visit academic and research institutions. Following Tsai's stop in Denmark, she is to visit the
RSS