Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) on Sunday accused the opposition of “barbaric” obstruction, adding that failure to approve the general budget before the end of the year would have dire consequences.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been boycotting the general budget for next fiscal year in the six legislative committees which they convene, he said.
As a result, the legislature has little time left to vote on the budget before the session expires, Ker said.
Failure to pass the budget would affect a broad range of government programs, including public employee pay raises, long-term care, military procurement, drug-use prevention, higher-education reform and the purchase of new police uniforms, he said.
“It does not matter how barbaric you are: Boycotting the general budget is off-limits,” he said. “Our patience has limits.”
If the committees do not finish their reviews, the DPP caucus would withdraw the bills from committee and force their second readings through without further deliberation, he said, adding that should the DPP caucus decide on this course of action, party legislators are to either put it in motion on Friday or convene the legislature for an extra session.
What will happen depends on KMT members’ actions, he said.
The Legislative Yuan has eight standing committees, but only the Economics Committee and the Transportation Committee have finished deliberating their portions of the general budget, he said.
Deliberations are incomplete at the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene, Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes, Finance, Foreign Affairs and National Defense, Education and Culture, and Internal Administration committees, he said, adding that the delay is particularly severe in the Finance Committee.
Only some bills sponsored by DPP conveners, and the Aboriginal cultural budgets sponsored by KMT Legislator and Internal Administration Committee Convener Sra Kacaw (鄭天財) are ready, he said.
“The legislature has never in its 20 years failed to hammer out a general budget in committee by this time of the year,” Ker said, adding that public servants would receive no pay raise if the general budget is not passed.
The KMT should “own up” to opposing the raise if it obstructs the budget, he added.
“The delays to the general budget will have a negative effect on policy,” Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The Cabinet is hopeful that the budget will pass by next month, but any further delays would impede the schedules for infrastructure projects and other policies, he said, adding that the administration expects the general budget to pass immediately next month by an extempore legislative session, as the 3 percent pay raise for teachers, public functionaries and military personnel depends on the budget.
The KMT caucus yesterday sent a request to Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) to extend the session and include more party-to-party negotiations to ensure the government’s continued funding and implementation of major policies.
Additional reporting by Lin Liang-sheng
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS