Ruling bloc eyeing simultaneous Diet deliberations on 2 budget plans

TOKYO, Dec. 21 Kyodo - The ruling coalition is considering holding parliamentary deliberations on a
second extra budget for the current fiscal year and the budget for fiscal 2009
simultaneously if the opposition parties adopt an obstructionist approach in
the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, coalition sources said Sunday.
The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komeito party,
are planning to start deliberations on the fiscal 2009 budget in the House of
Representatives before the second supplementary budget clears the upper
chamber, if the opposition bloc adopts stalling tactics, the sources said.
The ruling coalition is contemplating the strategy in order to enact the fiscal
2009 state budget by March 31, the end of the current business year, so that
the government will be able to promptly address deteriorating economic and
employment conditions.
However, since the Diet usually commences deliberations on a state budget for
the next year only after enacting an extra budget, the ruling coalition's plan
is likely to draw fire from the opposition parties, political analysts said.
Tadamori Oshima, the LDP's Diet affairs chairman, hinted at the possibility of
steamrolling the fiscal 2009 state budget.
''We will fulfill our responsibility by resorting to all possible measures,''
Oshima said in a lecture in Towada, Aomori Prefecture, in apparent reference to
the passage of the two budget bills.
The ruling parties plan to submit the extra budget plan and bills for related
legislation when the ordinary Diet session is convened on Jan. 5.
Following questioning at plenary sessions of both chambers, the ruling bloc
hopes to begin full deliberations on the supplementary budget at the lower
house's Budget Committee from Jan. 8.
The ruling coalition envisions that the extra budget plan will clear the budget
committee on Jan. 9 and pass a plenary lower house vote on Jan. 13, the sources
said, adding the budget plan will be sent to the upper house.
The government plans to table the state budget for fiscal 2009 on Jan. 19.
The extra budget would be automatically enacted, even if the opposition bloc
resists, 30 days after the upper house receives it.
But the passage of the fiscal 2009 state budget by the end of the current
fiscal year could be jeopardized unless deliberations on the budget plan start
much earlier, the sources said.
==Kyodo
2008-12-21 20:21:23