Legislature Passes 2026 Budget After Record 266-Day Delay, Drone Funding Intact

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the central government's 2026 budget on August 14, 2026, approving NT$2.9869 trillion (about US$93 billion) in spending — the longest delay to clear a central government budget in Taiwan's democratic history. The Cabinet had submitted the bill on August 31, 2025, with a statutory deadline of end-November 2025, but review dragged on for 266 days amid deadlock between the Lai administration and the opposition-controlled legislature. The final package came in about 1.7% below what the Lai administration had sought, but the NT$63.4 billion drone-industry development and procurement budget passed intact, despite earlier Kuomintang threats to cut it by as much as 70%. The delay had left large parts of the government, including defense procurement timelines, operating on stopgap funding for much of 2026.