Mon, Feb 03, 2025 page3

• DPP to focus on unfreezing budget in new session

  • By Sam Garcia / Staff writer, with CNA
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  The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would try to unfreeze portions of the central government budget and fight opposition party lawmakers’ proposed amendments to national security laws in the new legislative session, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.

  The DPP also hopes the Executive Yuan would strengthen its discourse to regain the initiative in policymaking, she said.

  Unfreezing portions of the budget would be challenging, as lawmakers from the opposition parties still hold the legislative majority, she said.

  

  Democratic Progressive Party caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu, right, gestures “no” during a legislative session on Jan. 21.

  Photo:CNA

  The legislature holds two sessions annually, the first from February to the end of May and the second from September to the end of December.

  The official opening of the new legislative session depends on negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, Wu said.

  Opposition party lawmakers used their majority to push through many regressive bills last year, the most significant of which are cuts to the central government budget, including completely axing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ media and publicity funding, she said.

  Other budget cuts targeted national security agencies, including the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the National Communications Commission, she added.

  The alliance between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) would only continue to grow in the next session, Wu said.

  If TPP Acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) officially takes over the party’s top post, the TPP might move even further toward “deep blue” ideals, she said.

  “The new legislative session would be a battleground for national security,” she said, adding that the opposition parties are expected to push amendments to national security laws that would infringe on the president’s authority.

  While the DPP fights against the opposition in the legislature, the nation is facing increasing pressure from China, she said.

  In the new legislative session, the DPP would push forward bills from the Executive Yuan and prepare countermeasures to opposition legislators, Wu said.

  The DPP needs to regain the initiative in policy discourse rather than only acting defensively, she said.

  Although the new legislative session is focused on proposing bills, many meetings are likely to be spent trying to unfreeze portions of the central government budget, she said.

  While unfreezing parts of the budget require approval from the legislature or committees, opposition party legislators might block those discussions from even being scheduled for review, Wu said.

  If those proposals are scheduled, the number of questioners per party, amount of time allotted for discussion and other regulations would need to be negotiated across party lines as there are no existing regulations for the procedure, she said.

  If bills proposed by opposition party legislators are declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, the bills would have to be revised, she said.

  In that case, the Legislative Yuan would spend its meetings “cleaning up the mess” created by opposition lawmakers, she said.
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