The Democratic Party's First Bill of the 21st National Assembly is the 'Working National Assembly Act'

General Election Pledge for a 'Working National Assembly'
Mandatory Convening of Temporary Sessions on the 1st of Every Month
Maximum Disciplinary Action Including Expulsion for Absence
Abolition of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's Systematic Review Authority
Some Provisions Expected to Face Opposition from Minority Parties

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The first bill of the 21st National Assembly by the Democratic Party of Korea is expected to be the Working National Assembly Act. According to political circles, the first reform of the '180-seat super ruling party' is predicted to be National Assembly reform. Since the 20th National Assembly was repeatedly stalled amid the stigma of being a 'wild animal assembly,' the Working National Assembly Act could serve as a cornerstone to prevent this. However, opposition from the opposition party is expected over provisions such as the abolition of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's systematic and comprehensive review.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Democratic Party proposed 'a working National Assembly, a trusted National Assembly' as one of the top 10 policy tasks in the 21st general election pledges. Since meetings were often not held due to failure to agree on the agenda, the core content is to make the convening of extraordinary sessions and the operation of standing committees mandatory. According to the pledge, convening an extraordinary session on the first day of every month, except for regular sessions, will be mandatory, and the agenda and opening date of the standing committee will be automatically set immediately after the extraordinary session.

Sanctions against members who fail to attend meetings are also included. If a member is absent from the plenary or committee sessions for more than 10% of the attendance days without a valid reason, their salary will be cut, and disciplinary actions such as suspension of attendance will be imposed. For absence rates between 10% and 40%, salaries will be cut by 10% to over 30%, and disciplinary measures can range from suspension of attendance for more than 30 days up to expulsion.

To encourage prompt bill processing, the bill includes abolishing the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's systematic and comprehensive review authority and instead receiving the review results from the National Assembly Secretariat's Legislative Office or an organization designated by the Speaker of the National Assembly. Additionally, pledges include introducing a national recall system to dismiss members who violate the obligations stipulated in Article 46 of the Constitution and establishing a permanent National Assembly Ethics Special Committee.

Opposition is expected over the abolition of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's systematic and comprehensive review authority. According to the National Assembly Act, bills must go through review and resolution by the relevant standing committee and then pass the systematic and comprehensive review by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before being brought to the plenary session. The systematic and comprehensive review is the final gatekeeper designed to filter out unconstitutional bills, but opinions differ between ruling and opposition parties on this matter.

The Democratic Party intends to prevent 'overreach,' such as bills being stalled for a long time or original drafts being amended according to vested interests. However, since the Democratic Party secured the status of a '180-seat super ruling party' in this general election, effectively holding independent legislative authority, the opposition is expected to interpret this as removing legislative checks and balances and thus oppose it. Since the 16th National Assembly, the chairperson of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee has typically been held by the first opposition party to check the ruling party's National Assembly Speaker.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.