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.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
RSS