[News Terms] The 'Working National Assembly Act' That Has No Binding Force Without Work

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The amendment to the National Assembly Act, known as the "Working National Assembly Act," was revised in December 2020 with the intention of revitalizing legislative activities and has been in effect since March of the following year. According to the amendment, each standing committee's plenary session must be held at least twice a month, and the bill subcommittee must be held at least three times a month.

However, even though the "Working National Assembly Act" has been in effect for two years, it has been revealed that not a single standing committee in the National Assembly has held the bill subcommittee meetings three or more times per month. This is based on an analysis of the "Status of Bill Review Subcommittee Meetings by Standing Committee in the 21st National Assembly" data submitted by the National Assembly Secretariat to Jang Cheol-min, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea.

According to Jang's analysis, from March 2021, when the "Working National Assembly Act" was implemented, until January of this year, no standing committee held the bill subcommittee meetings three or more times per month. The average monthly number of bill subcommittee meetings was 274 times (1.3 times per month) across 17 standing committees in 2021, but last year, the 17 standing committees held only 122 meetings (0.6 times per month). The National Assembly Steering Committee did not hold any bill subcommittee meetings last year, and the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, Intelligence Committee, and Gender Equality and Family Committee held only two meetings each.

National Assembly Building. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

Jang pointed out, "If bill subcommittee meetings are not held, penalties should be imposed to strengthen the National Assembly's obligation and responsibility to review bills." He said the law has become ineffective because there is no binding force even if they do not work. This is also because various penalties were removed when the "Working National Assembly Act" passed the National Assembly Steering Committee in December 2020.

Originally, the draft bill proposed by the Democratic Party included strong penalty provisions such as mandatory convening of temporary sessions every month and regular meetings of standing committees, holding bill review subcommittee meetings at least four times a month, stepwise salary reductions for members of the National Assembly who do not attend meetings without justifiable reasons, public disclosure of attendance at standing committee meetings on the National Assembly website, and monthly reporting of attendance to the Speaker of the National Assembly.

However, during the standing committee approval process, the list disclosure of members who did not attend meetings and the salary reduction regulation for absence were removed. Additionally, the transfer of the Judiciary Committee's systematic and detailed review authority to the National Assembly Secretariat or Legislative Research Office, and the "first-in, first-out" principle of agenda review?which was introduced to prevent the ruling and opposition parties from prioritizing later-submitted bills based on their interests over previously submitted bills?were also deleted.

Jang plans to take the lead in proposing a bill that imposes penalties such as salary reductions on standing committee members who do not hold bill subcommittee meetings at least three times a month.

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