Friday would be acceptable as an official start of the Legislative Yuan’s second session this year, the two largest parties said yesterday ahead of cross-party negotiations today presided over by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) called on the caucuses to be on the same page regarding the official start of the legislature’s second session.
The DPP is prepared to get to work at any time, Wu said.
Photo: Lin Che-yuan, Taipei Times
Friday’s schedule might be affected by promotional events for Disaster Prevention Day the following day, but the details would be hammered out during today’s negotiations, she added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said that his party also wants to open the session on Friday, but it hopes that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) would present a policy report.
The KMT would propose candidates for conveners of the legislature’s standing committees, Lin said, adding that the party is amenable to sitting down with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to negotiate.
Each of the eight standing legislative committees has two conveners, who set the committees’ agendas each session.
There have been discussions about whether the KMT and the TPP would continue their unofficial alliance in the second session.
TPP caucus secretary-general Vicky Chen (陳智菡) said that her party had advocated starting the session earlier than Friday to review and ratify proposed candidates to head essential government offices, but the proposal was overruled.
While the second session usually focuses on the government budget for the following fiscal year, the TPP has a list of proposed legislation — including on energy issues, economic development — that it hopes to push for in addition to budget reviews, Chen said.
The TPP caucus would ask Cho and other officials from the government to present reports on the issues, she added.
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