Now it’s your move, House Republicans. Senate Republicans on Friday pushed through their skinny budget resolution. House Republicans will try this week to pass a much more sweeping plan that would require $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.

The House Rules Committee meets this afternoon to prepare the GOP resolution for debate.

House Democrats are hoping to peel off enough GOP votes to kill the budget plan. "We only need three to stand up on behalf of their constituents. And that is going to be an ongoing effort over the next few days to identify those individuals," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told CNN on Sunday. Republicans control the House, 218-215.

Also this week: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hinted Saturday in a post on X that “big announcements” are coming this week. She has a lot on her to-do list, including a new plan for combatting bird flu.

For more on this week’s agenda, read our Washington Week Ahead. 

Caption: Houston restaurant notice on customer surcharge due to high egg prices. 

Ag research dollars at risk over transgender athlete policies

State universities are being told to comply with Trump administration policies regarding transgender athletes or risk losing federal assistance, including agricultural research funding.

The warning came in a letter from USDA Acting General Counsel Ralph Linden to the state of Maine and the University of Maine following Gov. Janet Mills’ declaration that the state would continue to allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.

She told President Donald Trump, “See you in court,” when he confronted her at the White House about her stand. Asked whether she would comply with his executive order, “Keeping men out of women’s sports,” Mills answered, “I’m complying with state and federal law.”

“President Trump has made it abundantly clear: taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars will not support institutions that discriminate against women,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a news release. “USDA is committed to upholding the President’s executive order, meaning any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding.”

Trump vows tariffs to counter digital services taxes

In his latest tariff salvo, Trump on Friday directed officials to look into tariffs and other trade actions to counter foreign practices he says discriminate against U.S. tech firms.   

The executive order denounces measures like foreign digital services taxes, local content requirements and data restrictions as disproportionately harming U.S. platforms.

Where officials identify foreign policies hurt U.S. companies, the order says the administration will respond by “imposing tariffs and taking such other responsive actions necessary to mitigate the harm.”

Why it matters: Many of the partners that maintain digital services taxes are already considering retaliating against other U.S. tariff threats, including Canada and the European Union.

The first Trump administration opened investigations into digital services taxes maintained by the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Italy, Spain and Turkey. Since then, Canada’s digital services tax has also entered into force. Friday’s executive order specifically calls out these countries for their digital policies.

Canada could offer dairy market concessions in USMCA review

A Canadian trade lawyer tells Agri-Pulse that Canada could grant U.S. dairy producers more market access in the face of strong U.S. pressure and to preserve the most important parts of a North American free trade deal. 

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“This will be strongly resisted by Canada for political reasons,” Lawrence Herman, an international trade lawyer at Herman and Associates, said. But he added that “strong U.S. pressure” and the risk of “jeopardizing other parts of the deal will allow some flexibility.”

A U.S. dairy representative said last week that they want to see the U.S. negotiate a “catch-up clause” in the forthcoming U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review to make up for recent unfilled export quotas. U.S. dairy exporters have long complained that Ottawa’s management of the quotas is depressing U.S. exports to the country.

“This will be one of the most sensitive and contentious issues, where U.S. pressure will be unrelenting,” Herman said. “The U.S. will demand much more than a kind of catch-up clause,” he added. He argued that a maximalist negotiating position could involve “a full-frontal assault” on Canada’s dairy supply management system.

FDA in process of rehiring some laid-off personnel

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday the Trump administration is moving to rehire people fired in the past week. He said the administration needs to be “more judicious” with its layoffs going forward.

“I think they could hire back fully half of the employees that were initially dismissed at the FDA, and they’ve tried to preserve things like review functions and inspectors,” Gottlieb said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

Gottlieb, who led FDA during the first Trump administration, said some of the fired employees had “critical functions.”

Reported estimates of the number of FDA employees fired range from 700 to 1,000. The agency says it has more than 18,000 employees.

EPA to continue with April 28 start date for midwestern E15 sales

EPA is keeping to the April 28 start date set under Biden for allowing permanent year-round E15 sales in eight midwestern states, Administrator Lee Zeldin says.

States have been awaiting the change since 2022, when a petition was first submitted by the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The Biden administration EPA decided to hold off implementation until this spring due to “insufficient" supplies in previous years, according to its final rulemaking on the matter. 

But, but, but: The agency will consider Ohio’s request for a one-year delay to allow the state to get into compliance and intends to evaluate similar requests from other states. It requested that those requests be made no later than Feb. 26.

Musk-backed email asks feds, what did you do last week?

The Office of Personnel Management has given federal employees until today to submit five bullet points of tasks they accomplished last week, according to a copy of the email sent to one USDA employee that was viewed by Agri-Pulse

Elon Musk also threatened in an X post that “failure to respond will be taken as resignation.” The deadline is one minute before midnight tonight. 

But, but, but: Some agencies, including the Defense Department and FBI, advised their employees to “pause” their responses. In a letter to OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell Saturday, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerald Connolly of Virginia said Musk’s threat of dismissals was illegal and “an insult to federal workers.”

Final word

“My biggest concern is that we’re risking losing the trust of an entire generation of farmers to conservation if things continue on the path that they are.” — National Association of Conservation Districts CEO Jeremy Peters on frozen conservation funding and USDA employee layoffs.

For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.