The eight legislative standing committees conducted votes yesterday to decide on their conveners, the result of which saw each committee with one Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and one Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator taking over the positions.
The new legislative plenary session commenced on Friday, and yesterday the eight standing committees, with committee members unchanged, chose a total of 16 new conveners by casting ballots.
There are two conveners in each committee and usually one of them would be from the ruling party, the KMT, and the other from the major opposition party, the DPP, and this plenary session would be no exception.
Committees that are expected to handle controversial or attention-grabbing bills include the Internal Administration Committee, which will review the cross-strait service trade agreement, the Economics Committee, which will deliberate the bill for the establishment of free economic pilot zones, and the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, which has to deal with the suspended bill on same-sex marriages.
The Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee was headed by two KMT legislators in the past session, as DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) lost the convener position to KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) in a draw that took place following a tie in votes.
Yu garnered the place this time, again by a draw.
Civil groups supporting same-sex marriage cheered the result, as “both Lu and KMT Legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) are against same-sex marriage and had suspended the bill for 10 months,” the Students United Front for Same-Sex Marriage said.
Yu has been one of the most LGBT-friendly legislators and proposed the same-sex marriage bill.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) are the new conveners of the Internal Administration Committee, where KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), the former convener, had rammed through the cross-strait service trade agreement and touched off the student-led Sunflower movement protests.
Wu said he had been reluctant to assume the job and it was only to form a caucus that he took over the position. He added that the service trade pact would only be reviewed when the cross-strait agreement oversight bill has reached a certain stage, and “it is not necessary that the review of the service pact be done [during this session.]”
Lee also reiterated the DPP’s stance of “first the establishment of an oversight mechanism and then a review of the service trade pact.”
KMT Economics Committee convener Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said she expects that the bill dealing with free economic pilot zones would be thoroughly discussed during the new session, but no schedule for completion has been set.
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