Ruling Party: "Difficult to Handle Judicial Reform Bills at Today's Plenary Session... Child Allowance Act Also to Be Renegotiated"

Even the "Child Allowance Act," agreed upon for passage, is up for renegotiation
Judicial reform bills "pushed through by the ruling party" aim for passage in February
"It is harder to pass bills at the plenary session than at the standing committee"

On the 12th, Moon Geumju, Floor Spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out that "out of roughly 156 bills scheduled to be tabled at the plenary session, the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to handle about 80, which means that more than 70 bills are in the unfortunate situation of waiting for passage," adding, "Even if a bill passes the standing committee, it is now even more difficult for it to pass the plenary session."

Moon Geumju, member of the Democratic Party of Korea

Speaking to reporters right after a policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, Floor Spokesperson Moon said, "Yesterday, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee passed the amendment to the Child Allowance Act, but I heard that the People Power Party has gone back on it and is saying we should discuss it again," and continued, "We, the Democratic Party, are asking for it to be added because it is a bill that was agreed to be handled, while the People Power Party is saying they cannot do it for various reasons, and coordination is underway."

The amendment to the Child Allowance Act is aimed at gradually raising, by 2030, the eligible age for child allowance payments from under 8 years old to under 13 years old. It was handled at the full session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee the previous day without any disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties.

Judicial reform bills such as the Constitutional Appeal Act (amendment to the Constitutional Court Act) and the Supreme Court Justice Increase Act (amendment to the Court Organization Act), which passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee the previous day, are also expected to be difficult to process on this day. Floor Spokesperson Moon said, "They were put to a vote after the People Power Party walked out. It will be difficult to handle them at the plenary session today," adding, "We are pushing forward with the goal of handling them by the end of February."

Regarding why the Democratic Party moved quickly to process the judicial reform bills, Floor Spokesperson Moon explained, "Within the floor, I think there were views that it would be fine to deal with the bills after the Lunar New Year holiday," and added, "I do not know how things were adjusted in the end, but that is how they were handled at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee."

As a fallout from the forced processing of the judicial reform bills, the "Special Committee for the Handling of the Special Act on Investment in the United States," which was launched on this day, fell into disarray as soon as it began. This was because the opposition parties took issue with the Democratic Party's unilateral handling of the bills the previous day, leading to a war of words. Floor Spokesperson Kim Hyunjung said, "It was decided to switch the meeting to a closed session because they said that, without a concrete commitment on what would be done if there is no bipartisan agreement on the Special Act on Investment in the United States, the meeting could not proceed," and added, "It is deeply regrettable to drag in matters from other standing committees and turn them into political strife."

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