Mike Johnson’s budget plans off schedule The House Budget Committee is not planning to vote on a budget resolution this week, despite the speaker’s initial plan to do so, our Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes report. Meredith scooped Sunday that GOP leaders have been scrambling to address demands from committee hard-liners who want deeper spending cuts. At stake is how quickly Republicans can begin to act on Trump's sweeping legislative agenda, which will require the House and Senate GOP to agree on a budget. Hakeem Jeffries works the House margins The House minority leader laid out a big demand for a bipartisan government funding deal on Monday: no more federal funding freezes from Trump. Jeffries is poised to use it as leverage over House Republicans’ slim majority as a March 14 shutdown deadline approaches. (ICYMI: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt all remnants of that spending freeze on Monday.) Thune gets a temporary reprieve Trump’s decision to delay tariff hikes against Canada and Mexico for one month is good news for the Senate majority leader, who now has more time to figure out how to balance the president’s interests with those of farm states, including his own South Dakota. Republican lawmakers are weighing a farm bailout to help agricultural interests harmed by the trade war, Meredith reports. POLICY RUNDOWN BESSENT TALKS MUSK WITH GOP — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reassured Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill Monday night that Elon Musk and his team do not have control over a sensitive government system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars in payments, five lawmakers in the room told our Jasper Goodman and Michael Stratford. Rep. Andy Barr, a senior Republican on the Financial Services panel, said in an interview following the dinner that Bessent’s presentation was “very reassuring” to GOP lawmakers and that Bessent is confident “Treasury has control of the Treasury payments system." Barr added that Musk’s DOGE team is focused on “making sure that there's not lost payments, missing payments, hemorrhaging of taxpayer funds.” Meanwhile: Democrats scrambling for a messaging strategy are uniting around making Musk their bogeyman. Sen. Brian Schatz is threatening to stall State Department nominees until Trump restores USAID’s autonomy, per WSJ. Other lawmakers joined a protest Monday afternoon outside the embattled agency’s headquarters. Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Chair James Comer requesting that they invite Musk to a hearing Wednesday on “Rightsizing Government,” our Hailey Fuchs writes. Jeffries is openly questioning whether Democrats should stay on the House DOGE subcommittee. Sen. Ed Markey filed an amendment that would effectively bar Musk and his lieutenants from accessing the Treasury’s payment system, Lisa first reported. And the Progressive Change Institute is circulating talking points this morning outlining “worst-case scenarios” under Musk’s new authority, per a memo our Nicholas Wu obtained exclusively. Related read: Top DOGE Democrat prepares for 'battlefield' TRUMP’S CRYPTO MAN HITS THE HILL — White House cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence policy czar David Sacks is set to appear on Capitol Hill this afternoon, as Republicans gear up to advance industry-friendly digital assets legislation, Jasper reports. Sacks will speak at a 2:30 p.m. press conference at the Senate Banking hearing room with the chairs of the four committees that oversee crypto regulation: Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott, Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman, House Financial Services Chair French Hill and House Agriculture Chair GT Thompson. Separately, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon is scheduled to meet with House Financial Services Republicans about crypto policy at their annual retreat on Tuesday, Jasper reports on POLITICO Pro. Related: Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick is leaving open the possibility that he’ll serve on the administration’s crypto working group despite significant ties to the major crypto token Tether, our Ben Leonard reports. Lutnick gave the signal in response to written questions from senators. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E:
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