With more than 400 pieces of legislation awaiting lawmakers' review, cross-party talks will be instrumental in helping the Legislative Yuan slog through the pile of paperwork.
"It appears inevitable that we'll have to burn the midnight oil when the session begins on Sept. 18, in light of the onerous workload," said DPP legislative whip Tsai Huang-liang (
Tasi called the task formidable, if not impossible.
Cross-party negotiations, he predicted, would decide the fate of most of the legislation. Of the 400 bills, 200 have been prompted by the continued downsizing of the provincial government and another 200 deal with reform of the legislature.
"The Cabinet has tagged them all as `urgent,'" Tsai said after a meeting of the DPP caucus and key government officials, including Presidential Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun and Cabinet Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁).
The figures do not include proposals put forth by the Economic Development Advisory Conference to boost the nation's economy, or legal amendments brought about by possible WTO entry in November, Tsai said.
What's more, the legislature is to break for the entire month of November, allowing incumbents to campaign before the poll on Dec. 1.
The review of the 2002 budget is expected to dominate the remainder of the session that will end in January.
That leaves little time for the legislature to get through everything that's sitting on its plate.
"We'll try to iron out opposition resistance the best we can through cross-party talks," Tsai said. "Hopefully, public sentiment against the legislature's inefficiency will make the mission easier."
As many as 70 percent of those polled blame the legislature for Taiwan's political chaos.
Still, the DPP legislative leader voiced skepticism over whether much can be achieved.
The opposition New Party, for instance, has vowed to boycott a proposed cut in the "land value increment tax," a capital gains tax for property transactions, saying the measure will further strain the government's finances.
Earlier, members of the DPP's New Tide faction also voiced concern over the proposed tax cut, but decided to stay silent in favor of unity.
DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (
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