The legislature’s next session is to begin on Friday, the Legislative Yuan said yesterday after its party caucuses reached a consensus following negotiations.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) would lead Cabinet ministers in interpolation sessions as usual and lawmakers would hear the government’s proposal to amend the Act Governing the Use of Police Weapons (警械使用條例) on Sept. 30, the caucuses said.
Su’s report to lawmakers on the general budget for the next fiscal year is scheduled for Oct. 4, while the report on the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program’s special budget would be presented on Oct. 7, they said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Legislative Yuan livestream
A debate on which committee should oversee the Ministry of Digital Affairs would be held during an extraordinary session on Tuesday next week, they said, adding that Minister of Digital Development Audrey Tang (唐鳳) would be invited to attend the session.
During the negotiations, Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) proposed Friday for the start of the session, saying the date should allow for sufficient time to review the general budget and funds for phase 4 of the infrastructure plan.
New Power Party caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) suggested convening on Tuesday to avoid causing a backlog of bills.
Lawmakers would likely be busy with campaign events ahead of the Nov. 26 local elections and need extra time to read the proposed bills and budgets with the care they deserve, he said.
Taiwan People’s Party caucus whip Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) agreed with Chiu Hsien-chih, adding that the oversight of the digital ministry must be assigned as soon as possible.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general Lee De-wei (李德維) said he is in favor of the date suggested by Ker, as many lawmakers assumed that the session would start on that day and have scheduled other meetings accordingly.
DPP caucus director Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said several legislators are abroad on diplomatic missions and would have to quarantine before they can attend meetings at the legislature.
A separate amendment to the Prison Camp Act (外役監條例) would likely be approved by the Cabinet on Thursday next week to bar prisoners convicted of a violent crimes from temporary leave and make it harder for other prisoners to qualify for such a leave, sources said.
Currently, prisoners can apply to temporarily leave prison after completing two months of their sentence, which officials deem to be too short, they said.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
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