Knesset winter session ends; Levin is most prolific MK

Labor, Welfare and Health Committee reaches 100th bill in 18 Knesset, making it the most active committee.

By LAHAV HARKOV
The Knesset 390 (R) (photo credit: Ammar Awad / Reuters)
The Knesset 390 (R)
(photo credit: Ammar Awad / Reuters)
MK Yariv Levin (Likud), chairman of the Knesset House Committee, was the most active legislator in the winter session that closed on Wednesday, and Labor, Welfare and Health was the most active committee, reaching its 100th bill.
Levin proved to be especially prolific in his first term as an MK, passing 29 laws since the 18th Knesset began three years ago, including nine in the most recent five-month session.
One of Levin’s initiatives is the “Lapid Bill II,” which was approved on Wednesday and requires anyone who announces his or her political candidacy to report all donations to the state comptroller, even before officially forming a party.
Three new laws are part of Levin’s overhaul of Knesset regulations, which he has been working on since the beginning of his term. The legislation includes rules regarding the salaries of MKs that have been suspended and regulations on factions that split.
The Labor, Welfare and Health Committee passed 100 laws in the 18th Knesset under chairman Haim Katz (Likud), including 49 private initiatives (a bill submitted by MKs or factions) and 51 government bills.
Some of the committee’s major achievements are legislation to help women, such as freezing women’s retirement age at 62, a bill that united all of the Knesset’s female members.
Another law banned ads with models whose body mass index is lower than 18.5, and yet another granted NIS 100,000 to widows of IDF reservists who were killed before 1999.
Another Labor, Welfare and Health Committee law, meant to improve the conditions of contract workers’ employment, was the subject of a Histadrut labor federation general strike in February. The new law allows contract workers to sue their indirect employers, such as the office in which a cleaner works, as opposed to just their contractors, if they do not get their social rights.
The indirect employer will be responsible for health fund and pension fund payments, as well as for transportation.