A news/commentary article in the Listín Diario points out that congressional bottlenecks seem to be part of Dominican political history, regardless of which party is in power. The newspaper highlights that bribery continues to be viewed by the population as the grease that gets projects moving or gets them shelved. Recently, Senator Darío Gómez complained that the petroleum bill that would peg the price of fuel products to international market prices has stagnated because the bill opens up the local market to competition. The newspaper highlights that important projects pending for approval are: Ley de Seguridad Social (social security bill) Ley General de Salud (health bill) Ley General de Electricidad (electricity bill) Codigo de Ordenamiento de Mercado (market order code) Ley de Amnistia Fiscal (income tax amnesty) Ley de Reforma Arancelaria y Compensacion Fiscal (tariffs bill) Ley de Educacion Superior, Ciencia y Tecnologia (higher education bill) Ley sobre Hidrocarburos (petroleum bill) Ley que incrementa los aportes 7% a los ayuntamientos (bill that would increase city hall funding to 7% of the National Budget) Ley sobre asignacion de las Obras del Estado (bill on the allotment of government works) Ley sobre Reforma al Sistema Presupuestario (budget law bill) Ley sobre la Reforma al Sistema de Contabilidad Publica (government accounting reform bill) Leyes anticorrupcion (anti-corruption bill) Ley que crea el Procurador de los Derechos Humanos (attorney general for human rights bill) Ley que crea el Defensor del Pueblo (bill creating the public defender) Aprobación de los Acuerdos de Libre Comercio (free trade agreement bills)
