No Consensus After Legislators Squabble Over Budget

TaiwanPlus News

Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu says a lack of consensus after a two-hour meeting on "follow-up" measures to the 2025 central government budget is regrettable. The budget has already passed its third reading with opposition support.

Transcript

00:00Taiwan's lawmakers were again discussing the central budget on Tuesday, although it has already passed legislative review

00:07Tiffany Wong is live from our newsroom here in Taipei. Tiffany. What did they discuss today?

00:16Lawmakers just finished a two-hour discussion on that controversial

00:21Central budget that passed weeks ago this time holding a so-called follow-up discussions

00:27The talks were meant to clarify parts of the budget and address some of the cabinet's concerns that the 89 billion US dollar

00:34Budget left after cuts and freezes could cause some issues when implementing government policy

00:40The approved budget was passed with support from the two opposition parties and marked a record six percent cut to the cabinet's proposed

00:48Budget sparking anger from the ruling party and from the premier who called the cuts

00:53Suicidal now today. No consensus was reached in this discussion

00:57discussion.

00:58We cannot reach a three-party consensus on today's negotiations, which is a great pity.

01:03The central government's budget for 2014 has been approved in three stages and a final

01:07decision has been made.

01:08Based on the public's respect, we ask the Executive Yuan to respect the decision of

01:12the House of Representatives.

01:13It is inappropriate to make a negative decision and increase the disputes in the government,

01:17but we will respect the Executive Yuan's decision."

01:21Speaker Han said that the final budget would be sent to the Cabinet for approval tomorrow

01:26and then it will be up to the Cabinet to decide whether to pass that on to the President

01:31for approval or send it back to the Legislature for a re-vote.

01:36So why did lawmakers discuss it again today if it seems like normal procedure would have

01:41seen the bill be passed on to the Cabinet for approval anyway?

01:47Well, the discussions that happened today come just a week after President Lai Ching-teh

01:53held an unprecedented meeting with the heads of the five branches of government on February 10th.

01:59He brought together mostly the Cabinet, the Executive, as well as the Legislature,

02:06the Speaker Han Kuo-yu, who's the only member of the opposition party that was present at that meeting.

02:12And he called for them to reach consensus across party lines.

02:17There, Han promised to hold discussions such as the one today to provide solutions for the Cabinet

02:23to work within the confines of this budget.

02:26The Cabinet said that they were still concerned about certain funding,

02:31including the funding for the submarine development program.

02:35But it should be noted that the approved budget does reflect a 3% growth from the previous year's budget.

02:43Now, it's possible that the discussions held today were just meant to appease the Cabinet

02:48before the Legislature sends on the final budget to the Cabinet for approval.

02:53But as they were unable to come to a consensus today,

02:56it's unclear whether this will have any positive effect on the Cabinet's decision

03:01or if these lawmakers will see themselves having more discussions over a re-vote soon.

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