IRAQI COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES BEGINS RECESS

UNCLAS BAGHDAD 000476 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EFIN IZ SUBJECT: IRAQI COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES BEGINS RECESS REF: BAGHDAD 441 ¶1. (U) The first full legislative cycle of the Iraqi Council of Representatives (CoR),which began with an inaugural session on March 16, 2006, ended with the somewhat delayed passage of the 2007 budget on February 8 (reftel). The CoR now begins a recess expected to last through early March. ¶2. (U) The constitution (Article 57) and CoR bylaws (Article 22) call for one "annual legislative period," spanning eight months and broken into two sessions. (CoR bylaws put the first session as March 1 - June 30 and the second as September 1 - December 31). Both constitution and bylaws also declare that the session "in which the general budget is presented shall not end until after approval of the budget." Last year's session only closed on February 8 following the approval of the budget. The CoR is on recess until March 1 according to CoR bylaws, but no specific date was set at the end of the recent session. Note: The long extension of a session which might have ended in December was largely due to a Sadrist boycott, with only one (of 17) sessions between November 28 and January 21 gathering an absolute majority (138 of 275 members) to constitute a quorum. End note. ¶3. (U) Article 58 of the constitution permits extensions of a CoR session for 30 days to complete the tasks for which the extension is required. The session just ended was most recently extended January 23, when the Speaker called for a vote to extend through February 10 for purposes of completing the budget, passing a State of Emergency extension, and completing the election law. All of the laws that served as the basis for the extension (and a number of others) have been passed. Since the legislative session could not end until after the budget was passed, it is questionable whether an extension on January 23 was constitutionally required. Following the passage of the budget, a new extension would have been required for the CoR to remain in session. ¶4. (U) An extraordinary session can also be called as needed to deal with specific urgent matters -- and would be limited to addressing "the topics that necessitated" the extraordinary session (Article 58 of the constitution). ¶5. (SBU) The expectation is that the CoR will return in early March, having lost little momentum in terms of actual progress on key legislation. The Constitutional Review Committee leadership is traveling on a UN program in any event and will not be here in late February. We understand that many other CoR members also intend to travel during the period of the recess. Even a call for an extraordinary session would not likely assemble the needed CoR leadership to conduct meaningful business. Expected priorities in the new session are reconciliation efforts, the Hydrocarbon Law, de-Ba'athification, constitutional reform, and progress towards provincial elections. SPECKHARD