A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus leader said yesterday that his party's top priority in the new session was to push opposition lawmakers to pass proposals on a major construction drive and the downsizing of the legislature.
"The DPP will call on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) caucuses to carry out their pledge to complete these two works right after the legislative session reconvenes," DPP whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
Ker said that the KMT and PFP had been confident that the Legislative Yuan would be able to finish the tasks in the new session when they ruled out the possibility of a special session to deal with the agenda before Lunar New Year.
"They should publicly unveil their determination to realize their promise," he added.
Last Monday, one day before lawmakers broke for the holidays, the KMT and PFP vetoed proposals for a special plenary session ahead of the regular session to be reconvened on Feb. 6.
Pan-blue lawmakers blocked the motion as they said that the Legislative Yuan has plenty of time to screen the two debates.
Ker, however, said that finalizing the tasks was "imperative since they are decisive to augmenting national competitiveness."
Ker said that KMT and PFP legislators should not break their promise to deal with the two bills as soon as the session reconvenes, adding that the pan-blues could do so by passing a number of bills including the draft organic law on the establishment and management of the resolution trust cooperation, a fund that should help the administration to solve problems thrown up by mismanaged banks and cooperatives.
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