Yoon Administration to Advance 711 'National Policy Legislative Plans' Aligned with Regular National Assembly Session

- Targeting 488 laws and 223 subordinate statutes, 99 to be reviewed within the year... Presidential Office: "Departments and ruling party to prioritize items for prompt processing"

- 'Fast-track' applied to shorten legislative period... Pre-adjustment phase introduced to reduce policy controversies such as '5-year-old school admission'

On the 16th, one day before President Yoon Suk-yeol's 100th day in office, the Presidential Office building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul is shown. President Yoon, emphasizing the elimination of authoritarianism, moved the stage of state affairs from the former Blue House to Yongsan. With the president's office relocated to Yongsan, the Blue House has been fully opened to the public. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] It has been confirmed that the Presidential Office has established a plan for the enactment and revision of a total of 711 laws and regulations to promote national agenda tasks in line with the opening of the first regular National Assembly session under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. This legislative roadmap, formulated through discussions between government ministries and the ruling party, aims to preemptively block the leakage of unprepared policies such as lowering the elementary school admission age and to quickly achieve national agenda outcomes by applying fast-track procedures to some cases.

According to the Presidential Office and ruling party sources on the 2nd, the Presidential Office recently received a report containing these details in the 'National Agenda Legislative Plan' and is selecting detailed items regarding bills and subordinate statutes that are expected to be processed within the year. A senior official from the Presidential Office stated, "Some are already underway, but there are also items still under review as they have not been finalized. We cannot inspect all over 700 issues ourselves, so we will prioritize those where bipartisan agreement is possible and common pledges made during the election process, in cooperation with each ministry and the ruling party."

The plan includes 488 laws and 223 subordinate statutes that require legislative action to implement 120 major national agenda tasks and 572 practical tasks. Among these, 99 bills will be submitted to the National Assembly within the year, and 133 subordinate statute revisions will be completed. The government has decided to immediately proceed with revising subordinate statutes that can be handled internally in accordance with the legislative plan timeline. The schedule is set as 208 items in 2023 (148 laws and 60 subordinate statutes) and the remaining 80 items after 2024 (50 laws and 30 subordinate statutes).

A ruling party official explained, "Half of the pending bills are of common interest to both ruling and opposition parties, but the rest have disagreements or opposing views, so processing these bills is expected to take considerable time. The Presidential Office and the government-ruling party share a plan to develop strategies to respond to contentious bills based on their causes and situations."

To this end, task forces (TFs) will be formed for some ministries to provide tailored support throughout the entire legislative process. This reflects the view that it is difficult to achieve national outcomes through legislation amid a minority ruling party situation and increasing domestic and international instability. A 'fast-track' system will also be introduced to shorten the legislative period. Since the usual process from drafting to legislative notice, evaluation, regulatory and legal review, and ministerial and cabinet meetings takes about 150 days, the plan is to reduce the steps in each phase and shorten this time to 40 days.

In particular, considering that uncoordinated policies such as 'elementary school admission at age 5,' which recently had a significant impact on President Yoon's approval ratings, could unintentionally be disclosed and cause controversy, a stage will be established to thoroughly review the legal framework of bills proposed by lawmakers in advance and reconcile differences with related ministries to unify the government's position beforehand. The official added, "This is a measure to ensure that the Presidential Office, ministries, and ruling party coordinate their opinions to prevent repeated controversies."

Additionally, each ministry and the ruling party plan to separately select related national agenda bills reflecting the Presidential Office's stance to prioritize the processing of key bills related to people's livelihoods and the economy during the regular National Assembly session. So far, selected bills include the Regional Employment Activation Act, which contains provisions for establishing employment policies tailored to regional characteristics; the Special Act on Public Health Crisis Response, which expands compensation for side effects from COVID-19 vaccines; the Administrative Basic Act, which clarifies age calculation; the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act, which eases tax burdens on single-homeowners; and the Capital Market Act, which expands supply channels for venture capital led by private investors. Some of these have already been proposed or partially agreed upon by both ruling and opposition parties.

A government official involved in establishing the 'National Agenda Legislative Plan' said, "Since conflicts between ruling and opposition parties over the budget bill are anticipated, there was a request to prepare so that bill deliberations can proceed as quickly as possible before the full-scale budget negotiations begin." He added, "Given the high public expectations for resolving livelihood issues, the intention is for ministries and the ruling party to focus on quickly delivering results for the national agenda."

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