Opposition boycott puts pharmacy and drug bills on hold

Atmosphere suggests Subcommittee 1 unlikely to convene…delay in reviewing livelihood-related bills inevitable if not held

Possibility of Subcommittee 2 being convened solely by ruling party…public medical school bill among agenda

On the 24th, the main opposition party, the People Power Party, decided to launch a filibuster on all bills submitted for consideration, along with a full boycott of standing committee proceedings, in response to the Democratic Party’s unilateral push to proceed with a plenary session.

As a result, the meetings of the 1st and 2nd Subcommittees of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, originally scheduled for the 25th and 26th this week, now face uncertainty regarding whether they will convene.

Particularly for Subcommittee 1, chaired by People Power Party lawmaker Miae Kim, the atmosphere suggests it is highly unlikely to convene.

While some within the ruling party have suggested holding a plenary session alone to review Subcommittee 1's bills, unilaterally reviewing and passing livelihood bills would inevitably invite criticism for bypassing established inter-party consensus procedures.

If Subcommittee 1 fails to convene, bills expected to be tabled, including legislation on limited international nonproprietary name (INN) prescribing for drugs facing supply instability or designated as nationally essential medicines, as well as bills regulating the labeling, advertising, promotion, and establishment scale of warehouse-style pharmacies, would lose their opportunity for review.

This would effectively delay the examination of livelihood-related legislation within the Health and Welfare Committee due to ongoing partisan conflict.

Meanwhile, the 2nd Subcommittee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, chaired by Democratic Party lawmaker Sujin Lee, could theoretically proceed without participation from the People Power Party. Among its jurisdiction is the bill proposing the establishment of a public medical school, a key component of the Lee Jae-myung administration’s policy agenda to strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare.

However, even this remains uncertain. Holding a subcommittee meeting solely by the ruling party to review and pass bills could face opposition from the opposition party later and could escalate conflict between the ruling and opposition parties within the Welfare Committee.

As a result, the schedule for the Welfare Committee's bill subcommittees has been disrupted due to clashes between the ruling and opposition parties over the third amendment to the Commercial Act, which primarily concerns mandatory retirement of treasury shares, judicial reform bills, and the Special Act on Administrative Integration.

An official from the Democratic Party's Welfare Committee office said, “While the Subcommittee 2 (chaired by the Democratic Party) might be able to convene with the ruling party alone, Subcommittee 1 appears difficult to hold. There have been suggestions to conduct an article-by-article review of Subcommittee 1 bills at the plenary session level, but the political burden is considerable.”