Key Takeaways: Draft Budget Changes Raise Strong KRG Objections; Iraq’s Top Court Says Extending The Kurdistan Parliament’s Term Was Unconstitutional – On May 25, the parliamentary finance committee made several last minute amendments to the 2023-2025 federal budget bill. The changes, which require the KRG to compensate public servants for withholdings made during the region’s economic crisis that began in 2015, raised strong objections from the KRG. Regional PM Masrour Barzani accused the finance committee of trying to derail existing agreements with PM Sudani Sudani, which he said were “the foundation” of cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil. Barzani argued that the withholdings should be repaid by the federal government since they were the result of Baghdad’s decision to cut the KRG budget. The finance committee’s changes seem to have the support of the PUK. On May 30, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled that a vote by the Kurdistan region’s parliament