Diet enacts 2nd extra budget for fiscal 2008

TOKYO, Jan. 27 Kyodo - The Diet enacted Tuesday a second supplementary budget to reinvigorate the
economy featuring a controversial cash handout plan, following an intensified
confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties.
Although the opposition-controlled House of Councillors on Monday passed a bill
to revise the extra budget to remove the cash handout plan, the 4.79 trillion
yen budget was eventually enacted without the deletion as the Jan. 13 decision
of the more powerful House of Representatives prevailed in line with
constitutional provisions.
The focus of parliamentary debate will now shift to the fiscal 2009 budget as
the ruling and opposition blocs agreed to have Prime Minister Taro Aso and
three other ministers deliver policy speeches at the Diet on Wednesday,
lawmakers said.
Diet interpellations on the budget will follow on Thursday, Friday and Monday,
and deliberations at the lower house budget committee will start on Feb. 3,
according to Kenji Yamaoka, Diet affairs chief of the main opposition
Democratic Party of Japan.
''It was very good to have it (the extra budget) passed as it is directly
connected to everyday life,'' Aso told reporters, adding he hopes the extra
budget's related bills covering how to finance the 2 trillion yen cash handout
will be enacted soon so the government can distribute the benefits to people.
Deliberations on the related bills have not yet started in the upper house,
making it unlikely the handout will be implemented anytime soon.
DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama criticized the government and the ruling
coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito, telling
reporters, ''Many people are opposed to the cash handout plan. An outcome which
does not respect their will is extremely regrettable.''
The opposition's amended bill was rejected by the ruling coalition in the lower
house Monday. Given the development, a joint committee of the upper and lower
chambers was set up to break the stalemate, but it did not reach a conclusion
Monday, delaying the enactment of the extra budget.
Lower house Speaker Yohei Kono and upper house President Satsuki Eda agreed
Tuesday that the Diet should seek enactment of the budget by the end of the
day, but again the joint committee failed to reach a compromise, prompting Kono
to declare that the lower house decision will become the Diet decision based on
Article 60 of the Constitution.
The article stipulates that if representatives of both houses fail to agree on
the passage of a budget in a joint committee, the decision of the more powerful
lower house takes precedence.
Opposition parties have been stepping up their offensive against the government
led by Aso, who has been suffering from falling approval ratings, and attacking
the cash handout plan, saying it is unpopular with the public and that the
money should be used for measures such as pensions and medical care instead.
The second extra budget includes support measures for households, small
businesses and regional economies that have been hard hit by the economic
slowdown. A minimum of 12,000 yen per person will be disbursed under the 2.04
trillion yen cash handout plan.
==Kyodo