A bill to amend the National Assembly Act to ease the conditions for ending a filibuster (a lawful obstruction of proceedings through unlimited debate) passed a subcommittee of the National Assembly steering committee, led by the Democratic Party of Korea. When the People Power Party said it would respond with a filibuster to contentious bills such as the judicial reform package that the Democratic Party of Korea said it would put to a vote, the Democratic Party of Korea moved to counter with "legislation to restrict filibusters."
Moon Jin-seok, the ruling party's chief deputy floor leader for operations and secretary on the National Assembly steering committee, met with reporters after the subcommittee on operational improvements on the 26th and stated accordingly.
Under the current National Assembly Act, if fewer than 60 lawmakers—one-fifth of the total—are present at a plenary session, the speaker may suspend or adjourn the meeting, but this does not apply to filibusters. Thus far, even when a filibuster was underway, lawmakers did not have to remain in the chamber.
In response, within the Democratic Party of Korea, the view emerged that "we will no longer tolerate a 'ghost filibuster' that empties the chamber and stalls only people's livelihoods (chief spokesperson Park Soo-hyun)," and the decision was made to amend the National Assembly Act.
The amendment applies the same suspension standard during a filibuster. In other words, if fewer than 60 lawmakers are present during a filibuster, the floor leader may ask the speaker to require a quorum, and if a quorum is still not met, the meeting can be halted.
The amendment also states that if the speaker cannot conduct unlimited debate, a lawmaker designated by the speaker will conduct it. National Assembly Vice Speaker Joo Ho-young of the People Power Party has declared a boycott of presiding over plenary sessions in protest of the ruling party's push to legislate. This is seen as taking into account the physical burden on National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik and Democratic Party of Korea Vice Speaker Lee Hak-young, who will preside during the "filibuster politics" in December.
However, the condition for ending a filibuster remains unchanged. Only after 24 hours have passed in a suspended state can a vote be held to forcibly end the filibuster with a three-fifths quorum of the total members.
The Democratic Party of Korea plans to pass the National Assembly Act amendment in early next month. With the People Power Party saying it will respond with a filibuster to judicial reform bills such as the Constitutional Litigation Act and the Supreme Court justice expansion bill, the strategy is to first create conditions that make it easier to halt filibusters and then process the reform bills sequentially.
People Power Party lawmakers boycotted the vote in protest of the bill's passage.
People Power Party lawmakers on the National Assembly steering committee held a press conference and said, "(The passage of this bill) is an attempt to neutralize even the opposition's last lawful means of resistance," adding, "The idea of creating a one-sided legislative framework for the convenience of the majority party is an unconstitutional attempt that squarely denies the fundamental principles of parliamentary democracy and a procedural coup for legislative dictatorship."