The National Assembly passed two of the so-called 'Agriculture Four Laws' that exercised the right of reconsideration (veto) under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration during a plenary session on the 23rd. This was handled by the ruling party amid heightened political confrontation related to the personnel hearing.
The National Assembly convened a plenary session at 2 p.m. that day to discuss the amendments to the Agricultural Disaster Response Act and the Agricultural Disaster Protection Act. The results of the vote showed that the Agricultural Disaster Response Act passed with 183 votes in favor, 4 against, and 14 abstentions out of 202 present lawmakers. The Agricultural Disaster Insurance Act also crossed the threshold with 179 votes in favor, 9 against, and 17 abstentions out of 205 present.
The amendment to the Agricultural Disaster Response Act stipulates that compensation for damages caused by disasters should be calculated and provided based on the actual production expenses incurred by farmers just before the disaster occurred. Previously, recovery costs were set based on uniform standards or past average costs, which drew criticism for being distant from actual loss compensation. This amendment is considered to have laid the groundwork for more accurately reflecting the production conditions and actual damage scale of individual farms.
The amendment to the Agricultural Disaster Insurance Act aims to alleviate the issue of excessive premium surcharges for farmers who have received insurance payouts due to repeated natural disasters, by excluding disasters above a certain standard from the surcharge category. Additionally, measures to promote higher enrollment rates in disaster insurance include conducting surveys, expanding education and publicity, ensuring the accuracy of loss assessment, and preparing grounds for transparency in premium pricing.
The agricultural-related bills processed that day were all those that had been discarded due to vetoes during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. Previously, Han Duck-soo, former acting Prime Minister, had exercised the veto power on the Agriculture Four Laws, which included the Grain Management Act, the Distribution and Price Stabilization Act for Agricultural and Fishery Products, the Agricultural Disaster Response Act, and the Agricultural Disaster Insurance Act in December last year. Subsequently, the Democratic Party of Korea pledged to legislate the 'Agriculture Four Laws' during the 21st presidential election period, and after the inauguration of Lee Jae-myung's administration, the Democratic Party has stated that it will conclude the Agriculture Four Laws in the temporary National Assembly session in July.
The Democratic Party plans to address the remaining two agricultural bills, which were not brought to the plenary session that day, on the last day of the temporary National Assembly session on the 4th of next month. The Grain Management Act mandates that if rice prices fall below a certain level, the government is obliged to purchase the excess production amount for that year, while the Distribution Act for Agricultural and Fishery Products contains the basis for introducing a 'Price Stabilization System for Agricultural Products'.
The amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Regional Love Gift Certificate Act (Local Currency Act), which had been discarded due to vetoes during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, were also not brought to the plenary session that day. Prior to this, it was reported that Song Eon-seok, the chairman of the emergency response committee and floor leader, strongly opposed the introduction of these bills during a meeting of the ruling and opposition floor leaders chaired by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik.
The core of the amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is to downgrade the legal status of artificial intelligence (AI) digital textbooks from 'textbook' to 'educational materials', allowing school principals to utilize them after deliberation by the school operation committee. The Local Currency Act mandates national financial support for regional love gift certificates and strengthens the legal basis for operational systems, including the requirement for basic plan formulation and surveys.
The Democratic Party also intends to process these bills on August 4th. In addition to the bills postponed that day, the Democratic Party plans to address contentious bills, including amendments to the Commercial Act, the Yellow Envelope Act, and the three broadcasting bills.