The Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan yesterday agreed to shelve the review of controversial bills during the three-month period before president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is inaugurated on May 20.
Premier Simon Chang (張善政) visited the Legislative Yuan to meet with Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and the legislative caucuses to talk about the processing of bills during the interim period.
After a half-hour closed-door meeting, Su said that all caucuses agreed that the review of controversial bills should be suspended before Tsai is sworn in.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“However, the Legislative Yuan cannot lay idle either, so we have asked Premier Chang to send bills [related to the economy and public welfare] to the legislature,” Su said.
Chang said that 149 bills passed by the Cabinet are scheduled to be sent to the legislature.
“However, since [Su and the caucuses] said that 149 bills are too much for this short period, and they include some controversial bills, we [the Cabinet] will have another look at the bills and send those that are more likely to be passed [by the legislature],” Chang said.
“The draft long-term care service insurance act, for example, could be sent to the legislature for deliberation, as there is relatively little dispute about it,” Su said.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said the controversial bills include the diagnosis-related group project proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Far EasTone Telecommunications’s proposed acquisition of multiple cable service operator China Network Systems.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called for a halt to the amendment of the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法), Tsai Chi-chang said.
He added that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus had said that while it might be hard to list all the bills that are deemed controversial, the Executive Yuan could get an idea by examining which bills have met strong public opposition when they were submitted.
Asked whether a proposal to set up a cross-strait agreement oversight mechanism is on the “priority list” for review, Tsai Chi-chang said the issue is quite complicated.
“The version proposed by the Executive Yuan will probably not be approved by the new government, which currently does not have any legitimate channel to propose a bill. The only way it could do so before May 20 might be to do it through the DPP caucus, which could serve as a communication platform. However, it was not discussed during the meeting [with the premier],” Tsai Chi-chang said.
“The other way would be to hold the matter until the new administration takes office, and the new Cabinet can propose a new version,” he added.
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