The National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will activate a “small subcommittee” from the 24th to tackle final adjustments on contentious budget issues where ruling and opposition parties have significant differences. The key issues to be addressed by the subcommittee include the President’s Office special activity funds, the National Growth Fund, and the budget for artificial intelligence (AI) related projects. These contentious budget items were previously withheld in the subcommittee due to major disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties.
The small subcommittee will have limited participants, including Chairperson Han Byung-do, floor leaders Lee So-young of the Democratic Party and Park Hyung-soo of the People Power Party, as well as the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The Democratic Party aims to ensure the budget is processed by the legal deadline, planning to operate the small subcommittee until the 27th, followed by a plenary session on the 28th to approve the budget. Meanwhile, the People Power Party is focused on implementing cuts to major project budgets. The legal deadline for processing next year’s budget is December 2nd.