Citizen Congress Watch today criticized the Legislative Yuan for passing only 19 bills over the past two months, while also extending the current session to the longest in its history.
If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party truly believe Taiwan needs a period of rest and recovery, they should end their malicious and aimless extension of the legislative session, Citizen Congress Watch director Chang Hung-Lin (張宏林) told a news conference in Taipei.
“Since they seem to have no intention of holding proper meetings, they should at least stop making things difficult for the Executive Yuan,” Chang said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The extension of the session is essentially dragging down the administrative team and not allowing them to get any rest, he said.
He added that while the opposition has been celebrating a major victory after Saturday’s recall polls and demanding that the ruling party self-reflect, it is troubling that the opposition itself has shown no sign of making any adjustments.
The Legislative Yuan has passed just 19 bills this month and last month combined, despite voting on July 18 to extend this year’s first legislative session to Aug. 31, making it the longest in Taiwan’s history.
The legislature passed 10 bills during an eight-day period last month and nine so far this month.
The bills passed last month were regarding insurance, commodity tax, veterans’ benefits, military salaries, establishing a national marine science center, telecommunications management, the sport lottery, civil service and court organization.
One bill that raised salaries for military personnel has drawn criticism, with some people accusing the opposition parties of using it to appeal to voters prior to the mass recall vote.
The bills passed this month were about protections for futures traders, offshore banking, the Fair Trade Commission, the sports industry, a special ordinance on national security, the rights of people with disabilities, senior citizens’ welfare, criminal law and civil servant appointments.
In addition, all seven nominees to the Constitutional Court were rejected by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week.
Today’s legislative meeting only covered items agreed upon by all parties on Friday last week, including 13 draft bills and referendums.
The meeting began at 9am and adjourned only 16 minutes later, with no ad hoc proposals addressed.
All 13 items discussed by the legislature were submitted for cross-party negotiations, which meant that no bills could enter their third reading and potentially be passed.
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