Two legislative committees convened a public hearing today to discuss changes
to the way that legislative assistants are paid, but no consensus was
reached.

That's after a proposal by KMT lawmaker Chen Yu Zhen drew ire from
legislative assistants and the DPP, who slammed the proposal as effectively
giving lawmakers an 8 million NT pay raise...

and not requiring receipts for reimbursement.

Ultiamtely a meeting last week between Chen and the legislative assistants'
union saw both parties agree that further legislation is needed.

Legal experts attended the hearing today to emphasize that assistants'
salaries should be clearly separated from those of lawmakers...

and said it is already the norm to require supporting documents before being
reimbursed.

However, they agreed that improvement is needed.

Meanwhile, DPP lawmaker Lin Dai Hua, who's under investigation for allegedly
taking hundreds of thousands in assistant fees, said that she supports
improving the way that assistant fees are dealt with.

(AH)