According to a Kyunghyang Shinmun report on the 1st, the parliamentary audit in the second year of the Lee government ended on the 30th with sessions of the House Steering Committee and the Intelligence Committee. The Assembly now moves into deliberation on next year's budget of about 821 trillion won, starting with Lee's address to the chamber on the 2nd.

The final stretch of the audit featured more wrangling than policy. Kyunghyang reported that at the Steering Committee, a row over People Power Party lawmaker Kim Tae-kyu's remarks seen as defending the insurrection, and his likening of committee chair Han Byung-do to a ‘gangster’, led to repeated recesses. At the science and broadcasting committee, the PPP's Lee Jin-sook visiting the president's parents' grave sparked a dispute over ‘unfilial politics’.

Schedule and the legal deadline

The timetable Kyunghyang laid out is tight. Comprehensive policy questioning at the budget committee runs on the 4th and 5th, department-by-department review on the 9th to 12th, and the adjustment subcommittee that settles increases and cuts begins on the 16th. The committee aims to vote on the 30th, and the statutory deadline for the plenary session is December 2.

Whether it keeps to schedule is unclear. In the same report a budget committee official said negotiations could stall or the opposition could dig in. The ruling party has said it will move this month on a parliamentary investigation plan targeting Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae and a ‘manufactured indictment’ special counsel bill, and clashes unrelated to the budget could spill over into the review.

Future-response fund: investment or a ‘second budget’?

The biggest point of contention is the future-response fund. Kyunghyang said it would be financed by extra tax revenue from the chip boom and is cited at 162 trillion won. The opposition argues that about 104 trillion won should go first to paying down government bonds rather than being set aside in the fund.

PPP chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon said in a statement on the 1st that the fund is a ‘second budget’ outside Assembly scrutiny and an open-ended spending authority over future generations. Democratic Party floor spokesperson Jeon Eun-su countered that a fund operation plan listing individual projects must be submitted for prior review and approval, so claims that it escapes Assembly control are untrue. The Democrats plan to announce their review priorities at the floor meeting on the 3rd, including more for public rental housing, transport infrastructure and youth jobs.