Knesset Legal Adviser: There is no possibility of approving the Law on State Regulation in the remaining time

Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik sent a letter to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanding that he refuse to approve the package of reforms under the State Regulation Law attached to the State Budget Law for 2025.

According to Afik, “a situation in which the government carries out a large package of significant legislative amendments in a compressed form in a short period of time for adopting the budget is unacceptable and is detrimental to the work of the Knesset, which is further aggravated in this session due to both the delay in the beginning of the process and and because of the demand for the Knesset to pass double legislation after amending the 2024 budget three times.”

The Legal Adviser demands that the reforms included in the law be approved within the framework of standard legislative procedures, and not as a single block, in order to distribute the burden on the Knesset more evenly and ensure compliance with all procedures.

It should be noted that Afik’s requirement does not apply to measures to consolidate the state budget, that is, changes to the taxation procedure. However, she notes that “it will not be possible to approve the state budget before the end of the current fiscal year,” and the package of reforms within the framework of the State Regulation Law has not yet even been presented to the Knesset for review. According to her, in the current situation there is no possibility of approving a package of reforms along with the law on the state budget.