The legislature’s Economics Committee could suspend review of the draft Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program bill for the time being, after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) blocked the review for the fourth straight session, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.
“We might not arrange another meeting this week. The caucus will make a decision tomorrow [today],” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told reporters after he adjourned the meeting at 5:30pm.
“We have done whatever the KMT asked us to do, and yet they still boycotted the meeting. We need to come up with a new strategy,” Gao added.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), a committee convener, was supposed to preside over the meeting, but KMT lawmakers said they would not join the meeting unless Chiu is replaced, as it was Chiu who attempted to approve a preliminary review of the draft without examining it on April 26.
At 11:45am, Chiu said she would step down as convener this week if the KMT would stop stalling.
At 3pm, Gao took over Chiu’s position and announced that the meeting would start with a legislative official reciting the log from the previous meeting.
However, KMT lawmakers continued to surround the podium and tried to stop the official from reading the meeting log.
KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said the KMT would not review the draft bill, urging the Executive Yuan to withdraw it.
“Asking Chiu to step down was just one of our requests. The KMT will not stop boycotting the review unless all of our demands are met,” Lin said.
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