▲National Assembly Operation Improvement Subcommittee Chairman Park Seong-jun and other lawmakers are reviewing the agenda at the National Assembly Operation Improvement Subcommittee of the National Assembly Operation Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on the morning of the 28th. (Newsis)
The Democratic Party of Korea independently processed the ‘Law on the abolition of the automatic department in the budget’ at the National Assembly Steering Committee subcommittee. This excludes the revenue budget ancillary bills from the automatic division of the plenary session, which is interpreted as an intention to increase the opposition party’s negotiating power on tax reform ahead of the budget session of the National Assembly in November.
In addition, the Democratic Party also passed a bill to revise the National Assembly rules to exclude the People Power Party from the ‘Special Prosecutor Candidate Recommendation Committee’ for the permanent special prosecutor targeting First Lady Kim Kun-hee.
The National Assembly Steering Committee held a subcommittee meeting on the 28th and passed, with the opposition party alone, an amendment to the National Assembly Act to abolish the system of automatic addition of budget and revenue collection bills. The ruling party withdrew in protest against the vote.
Representative Park Seong-joon, secretary of the opposition party’s steering committee, met with reporters immediately after the meeting and said, “The current law requires that if the budget review is not completed by November 30, the budget bill is automatically submitted to the plenary session from the next day.” He explained, “Criticism has been raised that no budget resolution has been made at the Budget and Accounts Committee since the budget was introduced.”
At the same time, he said, “The National Assembly’s right to review the budget is effectively neutralized,” and “As such, the automatic subpoena system for the budget and revenue-generating bills will be abolished this time, and instead, starting the day after November 30, the Speaker of the National Assembly will agree with the negotiating group to submit the budget bill to the plenary session.” He explained, “We passed a bill that allows us to do this.”
On this day, the opposition party, including the Democratic Party, proposed the ‘Partial Amendment to the Rules on the Composition and Operation of the Special Prosecutor Candidate Recommendation Committee’, which excludes the People Power Party’s share in recommending permanent special prosecutor candidates, and the ‘President’s Proposal’, which restricts the President’s exercise of the right to request reconsideration (veto). A special bill on exercising the right to request reconsideration was also passed.
Regarding the ‘permanent special prosecutor candidate recommendation rule,’ Rep. Park explained, “It was passed to exclude the ruling party from the right to recommend special prosecutor candidates for cases related to the president and the president’s family.” He also said, “We also included recommendations made by non-negotiating groups based on the number of seats.”
Representative Park explained, “A revision to the law on testimony and appraisal in the National Assembly was also passed,” adding, “It extends the issuance of orders to accompany non-appearing witnesses to hearings.” He added, “If necessary, witnesses were allowed to appear through online video conferencing, and the act of refusing to submit data was restricted for reasons of personal information protection.”
The National Assembly Steering Committee plans to hold a general meeting on the 31st of this month to process these bills. The goal is to pass the plenary session to be held on the 14th of next month.
The ruling party strongly opposed it. People Power Party members of the National Assembly Steering Committee held a press conference at the National Assembly communication center this afternoon and criticized the Democratic Party for pushing for reform of the National Assembly.
They said, “As if the Democratic Party was not satisfied with the ‘legislative dictatorship’ alone, it has revealed its ambitious claws to strangle the President and seize administrative and judicial power in both hands.” They added, “By granting the National Assembly omnipotent power, it is as if they are a ‘fake Democratic Party’ within the National Assembly. “They are trying to create a government,” he protested.
He went on to point out, “The president’s legitimate right to request reconsideration, guaranteed by the Constitution, is being neutralized by imposing restrictions on lower-level laws, preventing them from blocking any bill that suits their taste, no matter how flawed it may be.”
He also said, “The National Assembly is trying to seize the executive power and shake it up so that budget and revenue-related bills can be submitted to the plenary session under the ex officio of the Speaker of the National Assembly.” “It is no different from a threat to stop the livelihood of the Republic of Korea by holding hostage the review of the human budget,” he argued.
He emphasized, “We, the People Power Party, make it clear that we absolutely cannot agree to the agenda that the Democratic Party unilaterally pushed through.”
