Hickenlooper, Graham, Coons, Young, Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Advance Domestic Critical Materials Production

Legislation will cut reliance on China for critical materials essential to our national security, energy, and emerging tech
WASHINGTON –
Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, Lindsey Graham, Chris Coons, and Todd Young reintroduced the bipartisan
Critical Materials Future Act
to establish a pilot program for the Department of Energy to financially support domestic critical material processing projects.
“American energy independence is a bipartisan goal,”
said Hickenlooper.
“The U.S. could be a global leader in critical materials, but we need to shore up our domestic supply chains to strengthen our national security. Let’s get to work.”
“China maintains dominant control over critical mineral processing, which poses significant risks to our national security. It’s important for us to build better and more resilient processing capabilities here at home,”
said Graham.
“Critical minerals are essential to manufacturing the most advanced energy and defense technologies, but the production, processing, and recycling of these materials is dominated by China,”
said Coons.
“This bipartisan bill will spur the investment we need to regain American control of our critical mineral supply chains.”
“Our reliance on global supply chains for critical materials poses a significant national security threat, especially as the Chinese Communist Party continues to manipulate this market,”
said Young.
“Our bill will take innovative steps to identify opportunities for American leadership and investment in critical material projects, strengthen domestic supply chains, and boost our economic and global competitiveness.”
The U.S.
critical minerals list
contains 50 minerals – including graphite, nickel, and cobalt – that are essential to our economy, infrastructure, and military capability. Critical minerals are used in smartphones, electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and more.
This December, China
announced
that they would immediately block the export of three critical minerals: gallium, germanium, and antimony to the U.S. China currently controls 90% of the global processing capacity for rare earth elements and over 80% of the processing for other critical minerals like cobalt, gallium, and graphite. Experts have become
increasingly concerned
with U.S. dependence on China for critical materials, arguing it poses a significant risk to national security.
The
Critical Materials Future Act
supports critical material processing projects in the United States by granting the Secretary of Energy the authority and funding to deploy innovative financial mechanisms, such as contracts for differences and advanced market commitments, within this sector.
The bill also requires the Secretary of Energy to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of these financial tools on market dynamics and processing projects within the critical materials sector, and to provide recommendations for expanding their use to strengthen America’s processing capabilities.
In the 119th Congress, Hickenlooper has reintroduced his bipartisan
STRATEGIC Minerals Act
to foster critical minerals trade with our international allies, and the bipartisan
Unearth Innovation Act
to establish a DOE program for critical minerals innovation.
The
Critical Materials Future Act
is supported by the Colorado School of Mines, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the National Wildlife Federation, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, the Key Minerals Forum, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, Employ America, MineTech Ventures, Alta Resource Technologies, the Chamber of Progress, U.S. Critical Minerals, Nyrstar, the Alabama Mobility and Power Center (University of Alabama), South32 Hermosa, Alliance for Mineral Security, South Star Battery Metals Corp, the American Critical Minerals Association, and the Federation of American Scientists. For their statements of support, click
HERE
.
Full text of the
Critical Materials Future Act
is available
HERE
. A one-pager explanation on this bill is available
HERE
.
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