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.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it