Knesset House Committee chairperson MK Ruhama Avraham (Kadima) today deferred handling the 2007 economic arrangements bill, which includes a large number of measures, reforms, and structural changes, because of a dispute with Minister of Finance Abraham Hirchson.

Hirchson wants the Knesset Finance Committee to handle the 2007 budget and economic arrangements bills together. However, the House Committee today approved Avraham's position that the economic arrangements bill should not include structural changes and other matters that are not directly related to the budget.

MK Avraham said only a third of the items in the economic arrangements bill should receive fast-track approval. The House Committee will send a written notice to Hirchson to this effect. Knesset Speaker MK Dalia Itzik supports Avraham, while coalition whip MK Avigdor Yitzhaki (Kadima) is trying mediate between the Knesset and the government.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering appearing before the House Committee to persuade its members of the "importance of approving the economics arrangement bill."

Avraham asked, "What argument can Olmert use? Can he tell us that we're facing an economic emergency, and we must blindly obey the government? Why is the Ministry of Finance in such a hurry to pass reforms of heath funds, the bailiff's office, and the sewer companies, which it has been unable to pass in previous economic arrangements bills? The Knesset isn't the government's rubber stamp."