Critical Mineral Dominance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 4090, the Critical Mineral Dominance Act.

This bill will help strengthen our Nation's critical mineral security and enable our critical mineral dominance by codifying several of the policies that President Trump put forth in his hardrock mining executive orders earlier this year.

This bill does three things, Mr. Speaker. First, it mandates a new study on the cost of U.S. mineral import reliance, including from adversarial nations like China. This will help give the United States a much clearer picture into our critical mineral security, including what kind of vulnerabilities we face by failing to mine here and continuing to depend on other nations.

Next, it requires the administration to expedite priority mining projects on Federal lands and identify Federal lands that have the potential for new mineral production, as well as increase geological mapping to give us a much clearer picture of our incredible mineral wealth right here in the United States.

Lastly, this bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to revise or rescind any agency actions that are a barrier to domestic mining, as well as make recommendations to Congress as to how current law can be changed to streamline mineral development. It will also conduct a broader review of State and local laws that are also holding us back from our true mineral potential.

I think each and every one of my colleagues in this body, from both sides of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, understands and realizes the important role that critical minerals play in our 21st century economy. This will only increase as time goes on.

We have tremendous mineral wealth in our country, not only in my district in northern Minnesota, which is home to the largest untapped copper-nickel deposit in the world, but in States all across this great Nation.

There is no reason for the United States to be dependent on other countries, including foreign adversarial nations, for our critical mineral future. Nobody does it better than the United States.

I implore my colleagues: Where is the world currently mining for critical minerals that have better labor standards or environmental standards than us?

Mr. Speaker, nothing in this bill green-lights any mining project without necessary scrutiny. Nothing in this bill allows for a project to bypass NEPA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, or the Endangered Species Act, nothing.

This bill is a strong signal from Congress to the executive branch that we need to get serious about our critical mineral strategy and take necessary steps to win once again.

Before I yield back, I would note a number of the outside groups that are supporting this legislation. They include labor unions like the North America's Building Trades Unions and the Laborers' International Union of North America, LIUNA.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a statement in support from Albert Gore, executive director of Zero Emission Transportation Association, representing the views of the domestic electric vehicle industry; a letter of support from a group of 17 organizations representing different areas of the domestic mining sector; a letter of support from the Essential Minerals Association; and a November 2025 op-ed published by RealClearEnergy, expressing support for this legislation. January 16, 2025.

Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) is an industry coalition representing approximately 50 companies spanning the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain end-to-end, including critical mineral and material producers, cell and battery manufacturers, vehicle manufacturers, charging companies and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) providers, utility companies, and battery recyclers.

The United States is blessed to have vast mineral resources, but a holistic government approach is needed to fully unlock them. Critical minerals and materials are necessary for EVs, battery manufacturing, defense, and nearly every other advanced technology industry. Enabling the United States to truly compete in these sectors is necessary to maintain our edge in the global marketplace and create jobs here at home.

H.R. 4090 (Stauber), the Critical Mineral Dominance Act, helps us achieve this goal by supporting the secure and reliable sourcing of minerals for domestic manufacturing. Among other provisions, the bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to determine the economic impact of each mineral commodity for which the U.S. is import reliant, continue mapping federal lands suitable for mineral development, analyze regulations that may handicap the development of domestic projects, and provide Congressional committees of jurisdiction recommended policy changes to reduce regulatory burdens for project development.

We were glad to see this legislation move through the Committee on Natural Resources, and encourage Members of Congress to support this bill when it comes to the House Floor for consideration. Sincerely, Albert Gore, Executive Director. ____ February 3, 2026. Hon. Mike Johnson, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jeffries: As the House of Representatives continues efforts to strengthen America's mineral supply chains and restore U.S. competitiveness, we write in strong support of H.R. 4090, the Critical Mineral Dominance Act.

For decades, domestic mineral producers have operated in a regulatory environment marked by uncertainty, as permitting priorities and interpretations have changed between administrations. This lack of consistency disincentivizes long-term capital investment and discourages development opportunities in the U.S.

H.R. 4090 will provide greater stability and predictability for mine developers and promote job creation by codifying key provisions of President Trump's executive orders related to domestic hardrock mining. This legislation represents an important step toward a more efficient, predictable and durable federal permitting framework. By improving permitting efficiency, expanding responsible access to our nation's mineral endowment on federal lands and reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, H.R. 4090 will help reposition the U.S. to compete in the minerals age.

Developing domestic mining and onshoring mineral supply chains are foundational to advancing U.S. economic and national security priorities. By reducing our reliance on mineral imports, especially those from geopolitical adversaries, this bill improves supply chain resilience, protects military readiness and ensures the U.S. can meet current and future needs while maintaining world-leading environmental, labor and safety standards.

H.R. 4090 enhances U.S. economic competitiveness and takes direct aim at our strategic vulnerabilities. This bill is a critically important step forward to ensure America can responsibly and efficiently develop its vast domestic mineral resources. We urge your support for H.R. 4090. Sincerely,

Alabama Mining Association, Alaska Miners Association, American Exploration & Mining Association, Arizona Mining Association, Colorado Mining Association, Georgia Mining Association, Idaho Mining Association, MiningMinnesota, Montana Mining Association, National Mining Association, Nevada Mining Association, New Mexico Mining Association, Tennessee Mining Association, Texas Mining and Reclamation Association, Utah Mining Association, Women's Mining Coalition, Wyoming Mining Association. ____ January 16, 2025. Hon. Bruce Westerman, Chairman, House Committee on Natural Resources, Washington, DC. Hon. Jared Huffman, Ranking Member, House Committee on Natural Resources, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Westerman and Ranking Member Huffman: The Essential Minerals Association (EMA) writes to express our strong support for H.R. 4090, the Critical Mineral Dominance Act.

EMA is the representative voice of approximately 100 companies that extract, process, and support a vital and beneficial group of metal/ nonmetal minerals that are the essential ingredients for a strong national defense and economy as well as many of the products used in everyday life. Our members' minerals are essential building blocks for the agriculture, defense, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology sectors, to name just a few.

Securing and strengthening our domestic mineral supply chains is vital to securing our national defense and economy, both now and into the future. Recent years have shown us the danger of relying on hostile foreign nations such as China for essential mineral resources which can be cut off at any time due to geopolitical or economic tensions. Maximizing domestic production and processing of mineral resources is the optimal strategy for addressing this dynamic and will also create many well-paying jobs for American workers.

To that end, Congress must act decisively to ensure that domestic mineral mining in the U.S. can thrive. To that end, Congress must act decisively to properly understand the impacts of mineral import reliance, find and map federal lands that are well-suited to domestic mineral production, ensure identification and prompt approval of high priority mineral projects, and remove unnecessary barriers to opening a mine in the United States. The Critical Mineral Dominance Act represents a step in the right direction and EMA urges Congress to pass it as soon as possible.

H.R. 4090 will direct the Department of the Interior (DOI) to revise or rescind agency actions that hinder mining projects, recommend reforms of current mining laws to Congress, and conduct a nationwide review of state and local laws impeding mineral exploration and development. The bill will also require DOI to identify and approve mining projects which can be expeditiously permitted and made operational as well as continue prioritization of accurate national mapping of hardrock mineral resources.

The provisions of H.R. 4090 all represent necessary actions to securing domestic mineral supply chains. Congress and the administration need to identify lands with strong mineral potential and rapidly approve projects which can reduce our reliance on imported mineral resources, and H.R. 4090 would further those objectives. Further, the bill's requirement to remove regulatory regimes which present unnecessary barriers or delays to opening a mine is key to ensuring that projects can be approved expeditiously and become operational as quickly as possible while still maintaining appropriate protections for the environment and worker health and safety. The sooner such projects can come online, the sooner the U.S. can reduce its dependence on foreign hostile nations like China for important mineral resources. The Critical Mineral Dominance Act represents a series of steps in the right direction toward securing our domestic mineral supply chains and securing American mineral independence. EMA supports this bill and encourages Congress to pass it as soon as possible.

Securing and fortifying our domestic mineral supply chains must remain a top priority for Congress and the administration in order to protect U.S. national and economic security. H.R. 4090 will further this goal and enable the U.S. to reduce our dependence on hostile foreign nations like China for essential mineral resources while creating jobs across the country for American workers. EMA urges Congress to pass the Critical Mineral Dominance Act and send it to President Trump for signature as soon as possible. Sincerely, Chris Greissing, President, Essential Minerals Association. [Nov. 11, 2025]

President Trump Needs Better Rare Earths Negotiating Tools (By Debra Struhsacker, Sarah Montalbano)

President Trump secured a one-year reprieve from Beijing's threat to shut down global rare-earths exports, which would have interrupted manufacturing of semiconductor chips and magnets essential in military and technology applications. The President quipped that ``there's no roadblock at all'' and rare earths ``will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while.''

But the President's brinkmanship has not diminished the vulnerability of the world's rare earths supply chains. To strengthen its position in future negotiations with Beijing, Washington can't eliminate rare earths and critical minerals from its vocabulary. The U.S. must win the rare earths and critical minerals race with China to support our economy and guarantee our national security.

With the Pentagon manufacturing weapons systems using over 80,000 parts subject to Chinese critical minerals export controls, the U.S. can no longer treat critical minerals as commodities that can be managed like consumer products. We cannot continue to rely on other countries--including our allies--for these materials. This will require dramatically increasing domestic mining and mineral processing and stockpiling.

The U.S. must start producing critical minerals from domestic mines and refineries as soon as possible, which will require long-term policies to encourage domestic minerals investments. Mining companies require policy certainty to justify investing hundreds of millions of dollars to explore for minerals and billions more to develop new mines and mineral processing facilities. Without this certainty, they will continue to explore and build in countries that have stable and supportive mining policies.

It's going to take time to rebuild the U.S. mining industry, which has atrophied due to decades of hostile federal policies. Deals like the recent U.S.-Australia critical minerals and rare earths framework make sense to secure supplies in the near term. But relying on minerals from Australia and other allies could be risky if an adversary strategically interferes with international shipping.

The U.S. suffers from a lack of investment in mining and mineral processing research and development. The U.S. Bureau of Mines used to conduct research and provide minerals expertise until Congress' short-sighted decision in 1996 to stop funding this Bureau. Thirty years later, the U.S. is woefully behind China in our understanding of the best ways to process minerals, including rare earths. Today, China has superior technology to separate the individual rare earth elements needed to manufacture products like magnets from rare earth feedstocks.

China is also light years ahead of the U.S. in training mining engineers, metallurgists. and other mining professionals. China's numerous mining schools graduate thousands of students annually to support its strategy to secure global minerals dominance. U.S. mining schools have dwindled to 14 institutions--down from 25 in 1982--and graduate fewer than 200 mining engineers each year.

To solve the current minerals emergency, Congress must amend the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to codify the Supreme Court's ruling in Seven County Coalition v. Eagle County, CO, a unanimous judgement establishing that NEPA ``does not mandate particular results, but simply prescribes the necessary process for an agency's environmental review of a project.'' NEPA has added years of permitting and litigation that delay most infrastructure projects, not just new mines.

A bipartisan bill, H.R. 4776, that Chairman Bruce Westerman (R., AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D., ME) recently introduced, would codify key elements of the Supreme Court's Seven County Coalition ruling and enact judicial reforms to reduce NEPA litigation, which, according to the Supreme Court, has ``transformed NEPA from a modest procedural requirement into a blunt and haphazard tool employed by project opponents.''

Congress should also enact Rep. Pete Stauber's (R., MN), H.R. 4090, to codify some of the minerals directives in President Trump's executive orders, and the bipartisan and bicameral Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (S-544 and H.R. 1366) to reduce the uncertainties about whether federal lands can be used for mining support facilities stemming from litigation seeking to curtail mining on western federal lands,

Although President Trump staved off the rare earths emergency for a year, he needs better future negotiating tools. The rare earths truce with China buys the U.S. some time to remove regulatory barriers and start ramping up domestic mining and mineral processing. Reducing our reliance on China for rare earths and other critical minerals is the best way to increase the President's negotiating leverage.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan piece of legislation, H.R. 4090.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, my good friends on the other side of the aisle will promote, again, anywhere but America and any worker but the American worker when it comes to mining. Anywhere but America, and any worker but the American worker.

They are exporting their environmental guilt. They are okay with getting these critical minerals mined by child slave labor.

Mr. Speaker, 30 percent of the cobalt comes from child slave labor. Both the Trump and the Biden administration agree with that.

Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in this legislation that removes NEPA. Nothing in this legislation removes the clean water. Nothing in this legislation removes the clean air in the decisionmaking, and nothing in this legislation removes any of the endangered species protections.

Mr. Speaker, we took a bipartisan trip last year up to Alaska. Greens Creek Mine is in a national monument. There is exceptional mining of the nickel in the national monument. We can do it here, Mr. Speaker, better than anywhere. We have the mineral wealth. We have the workers. We can do both. We can have a clean environment and clean water and domestically mine.

My friends across the aisle consistently say: Yes, we need critical minerals. Yes, we need if for strategic national security. Yes, we need it for medical instrument technology. Yes, we need it for our everyday lives. They refuse to allow it to happen. They put up roadblock after roadblock. They say that they want it, but they never support it, or very rarely support it.

That is the mindset and the philosophy, Mr. Speaker, that has brought American critical mineral mining to its knees and allowed China to take over.

China's global mineral dominance is not a threat. It is a reality. This is what is happening right now because of that philosophy of not in my backyard, not in our backyard.

There is a philosophy that it is better in our backyard. We do it better than anybody. Look at the unions that are supporting this piece of legislation. It came out of committee in a bipartisan fashion. This is what the American people want, bipartisan work. Here it is.

I look forward to this bipartisan piece of legislation that strengthens our national security moving forward this afternoon.

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I want to paraphrase in my own mind what was said moments ago across the aisle, real simple: anywhere but America, any worker but the American worker. I am paraphrasing from my own mind what I heard. The excuses, the excuses, the excuses, the excuses. We have to mine here. We can't mine here.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman who just spoke in her beautiful State, she has allowed oil and gas development. In her beautiful State, she has allowed mining. Why not in my State? Why can't my union workers make the $135,000-a-year jobs, but in her State it is okay? This bill is for the entire country.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents need good-paying jobs, too. It is good for our economy and good for our communities. The technology we use is second to none.

I want to answer my friend from New Mexico who just spoke. She asked: Why aren't we processing and refining here? I have good news for her. Very shortly, there is going to be legislation to allow that, to permit the mining and processing here in the United States of America. I am going to go directly to my good friend and colleague from New Mexico to help sponsor that with me because she is right. Let's do it here. Let's mine here, Mr. Speaker. I am going to give her and my friends across the aisle that opportunity very shortly.

The fact of the matter is, we have the opportunity. We have to remove the political science--the truth and the facts--to allow this mining to move forward.

This is our backyard. My good friend across the aisle, who is managing the debate, talked about the economic value or the lack thereof. I share with my good friend and colleague that in my State of Minnesota, just one mine proposed, just one, will bring between $1.4 and $1.8 billion of Federal revenue, $800 million for the taxpayers of Minnesota. Every single school district in the great State of Minnesota benefits from mining.

You want to know why I am passionate? These are my constituents that will be mining these critical minerals with the best labor standards and the best environmental standards in the world. We have been mining in Minnesota for 145 years. We have mined the iron ore that makes over 80 percent of this Nation's steel.

The cleanest water in the State of Minnesota, Mr. Speaker, is in the heart of mining country in Buhl, Minnesota. We know how to do it.

Let's stop exporting our environmental guilt. Let's stop exporting our environmental guilt and do it here with our labor standards, our technology, and our workers.

I am happy that New Mexico has oil and gas development and mining development. I am happy for those workers. We need that. Let Minnesota mine.

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