Iraqi parliament passes urgent food security bill
The Iraqi judiciary had blocked a previous version of the legislation, which empowers the government to address rising food prices and shortages resulting from the Ukraine war.
Iraq’s parliament Wednesday passed emergency legislation that will allow the government to use public funds for urgent food security and development needs, as the country has faced a political deadlock since October of last year that has left Iraq without a formal budget.
The bill, titled the “Emergency Law for Food Security and Development,” allocates 25 trillion Iraqi dinar (or about $17 billion), for staple food supplies, gas and electricity, as well as payment of public servant salaries.
The legislation will allow Baghdad to expand food subsidies as the country faces rising prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and a crippling drought, in addition to boosting electricity provision as consumption rises leading into the summer.
The law’s passage marked rare agreement in a highly divided parliament, which has been unable to agree on a president nearly eight months after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s bloc emerged as the biggest winner in the general elections.
