I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7807
To create intergovernmental coordination between State, local, Tribal, and
territorial jurisdictions, and the Federal Government to combat United
States reliance on the People’s Republic of China and other covered
countries for critical minerals and rare earth metals, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH22, 2024
Mr. O
BERNOLTEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To create intergovernmental coordination between State,
local, Tribal, and territorial jurisdictions, and the Fed-
eral Government to combat United States reliance on
the People’s Republic of China and other covered coun-
tries for critical minerals and rare earth metals, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Intergovernmental 4
Critical Minerals Task Force Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds that— 2
(1) current supply chains of critical minerals 3
pose a great risk to the national security of the 4
United States; 5
(2) critical minerals are necessary for transpor-6
tation, technology, renewable energy, military equip-7
ment and machinery, and other relevant sectors cru-8
cial for the homeland and national security of the 9
United States; 10
(3) in 2022, the United States was 100 percent 11
import reliant for 12 out of 50 critical minerals and 12
more than 50 percent import reliant for an addi-13
tional 31 critical mineral commodities classified as 14
‘‘critical’’ by the United States Geological Survey, 15
and the People’s Republic of China was the top pro-16
ducing nation for 30 of those 50 critical minerals; 17
(4) as of July 2023, companies based in the 18
People’s Republic of China that extract critical min-19
erals around the world have received hundreds of 20
charges of human rights violations; and 21
(5) on March 26, 2014, the World Trade Orga-22
nization ruled that the export restraints by the Peo-23
ple’s Republic of China on rare earth metals violated 24
obligations under the protocol of accession to the 25
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World Trade Organization, which harmed manufac-1
turers and workers in the United States. 2
SEC. 3. INTERGOVERNMENTAL CRITICAL MINERALS TASK 3
FORCE. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 5 of the National Mate-5
rials and Minerals Policy, Research and Development Act 6
of 1980 (30 U.S.C. 1604) is amended by adding at the 7
end the following: 8
‘‘(g) I
NTERGOVERNMENTAL CRITICALMINERALS 9
T
ASKFORCE.— 10
‘‘(1) P
URPOSES.—The purposes of the task 11
force established under paragraph (3)(B) are— 12
‘‘(A) to assess the reliance of the United 13
States on the People’s Republic of China, and 14
other covered countries, for critical minerals, 15
and the resulting national security risks associ-16
ated with that reliance, at each level of the Fed-17
eral Government, Indian Tribes, and State, 18
local, and territorial governments; 19
‘‘(B) to make recommendations to the 20
President for the implementation of this Act 21
with regard to critical minerals, including— 22
‘‘(i) the congressional declarations of 23
policies in section 3; and 24
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‘‘(ii) revisions to the program plan of 1
the President and the initiatives required 2
under this section; 3
‘‘(C) to make recommendations to secure 4
United States and global supply chains for crit-5
ical minerals; 6
‘‘(D) to make recommendations to reduce 7
the reliance of the United States, and partners 8
and allies of the United States, on critical min-9
eral supply chains involving covered countries; 10
and 11
‘‘(E) to facilitate cooperation, coordination, 12
and mutual accountability among each level of 13
the Federal Government, Indian Tribes, and 14
State, local, and territorial governments, on a 15
holistic response to the dependence on covered 16
countries for critical minerals across the United 17
States. 18
‘‘(2) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 19
‘‘(A) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -20
GRESS.—The term ‘appropriate committees of 21
Congress’ means— 22
‘‘(i) the Committees on Homeland Se-23
curity and Governmental Affairs, Energy 24
and Natural Resources, Armed Services, 25
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Environment and Public Works, Com-1
merce, Science, and Transportation, Fi-2
nance, and Foreign Relations of the Sen-3
ate; and 4
‘‘(ii) the Committees on Oversight and 5
Accountability, Natural Resources, Armed 6
Services, Ways and Means, Foreign Af-7
fairs, and Energy and Commerce of the 8
House of Representatives. 9
‘‘(B) C
HAIR.—The term ‘Chair’ means a 10
member of the Executive Office of the Presi-11
dent, designated by the President pursuant to 12
paragraph (3)(A). 13
‘‘(C) C
OVERED COUNTRY .—The term ‘cov-14
ered country’ means— 15
‘‘(i) a covered nation (as defined in 16
section 4872(d) of title 10, United States 17
Code); and 18
‘‘(ii) any other country determined by 19
the task force to be a geostrategic compet-20
itor or adversary of the United States with 21
respect to critical minerals. 22
‘‘(D) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘crit-23
ical mineral’ has the meaning given the term in 24
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section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 1
U.S.C. 1606(a)). 2
‘‘(E) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian 3
Tribe’ has the meaning given the term in sec-4
tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 5
Education Assistance Act ( 25 U.S.C. 5304). 6
‘‘(F) T
ASK FORCE.—The term ‘task force’ 7
means the task force established under para-8
graph (3)(B). 9
‘‘(3) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days 10
after the date of enactment of this subsection, the 11
President shall— 12
‘‘(A) designate a Chair for the task force; 13
and 14
‘‘(B) acting through the Executive Office 15
of the President, establish a task force. 16
‘‘(4) C
OMPOSITION; MEETINGS.— 17
‘‘(A) A
PPOINTMENT.—The Chair, in con-18
sultation with key intergovernmental, private, 19
and public sector stakeholders, shall appoint to 20
the task force representatives with expertise in 21
critical mineral supply chains from Federal 22
agencies, Indian Tribes, and State, local, and 23
territorial governments, including not less than 24
1 representative from each of— 25
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‘‘(i) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 1
‘‘(ii) the Bureau of Land Manage-2
ment; 3
‘‘(iii) the Critical Minerals Sub-4
committee of the National Science and 5
Technology Council; 6
‘‘(iv) the Department of Agriculture; 7
‘‘(v) the Department of Commerce; 8
‘‘(vi) the Department of Defense; 9
‘‘(vii) the Department of Energy; 10
‘‘(viii) the Department of Homeland 11
Security; 12
‘‘(ix) the Department of the Interior; 13
‘‘(x) the Department of Labor; 14
‘‘(xi) the Department of State; 15
‘‘(xii) the Department of Transpor-16
tation; 17
‘‘(xiii) the Environmental Protection 18
Agency; 19
‘‘(xiv) the Export-Import Bank of the 20
United States; 21
‘‘(xv) the Forest Service; 22
‘‘(xvi) the General Services Adminis-23
tration; 24
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‘‘(xvii) the National Science Founda-1
tion; 2
‘‘(xviii) the Office of the United 3
States Trade Representative; 4
‘‘(xix) the United States International 5
Development Finance Corporation; 6
‘‘(xx) the United States Geological 7
Survey; and 8
‘‘(xxi) any other relevant Federal enti-9
ty, as determined by the Chair. 10
‘‘(B) C
ONSULTATION.—The task force 11
shall consult individuals with expertise in crit-12
ical mineral supply chains, individuals from 13
States whose communities, businesses, and in-14
dustries are involved in aspects of critical min-15
eral supply chains, including mining and proc-16
essing operations, and individuals from a di-17
verse and balanced cross-section of— 18
‘‘(i) intergovernmental consultees, in-19
cluding— 20
‘‘(I) State governments; 21
‘‘(II) local governments; 22
‘‘(III) territorial governments; 23
and 24
‘‘(IV) Indian Tribes; and 25
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‘‘(ii) other stakeholders, including— 1
‘‘(I) academic research institu-2
tions; 3
‘‘(II) corporations; 4
‘‘(III) nonprofit organizations; 5
‘‘(IV) private sector stakeholders; 6
‘‘(V) trade associations; 7
‘‘(VI) mining industry stake-8
holders; and 9
‘‘(VII) labor representatives. 10
‘‘(C) M
EETINGS.— 11
‘‘(i) I
NITIAL MEETING.—Not later 12
than 90 days after the date on which all 13
representatives of the task force have been 14
appointed, the task force shall hold the 15
first meeting of the task force. 16
‘‘(ii) F
REQUENCY.—The task force 17
shall meet not less than once every 90 18
days. 19
‘‘(5) D
UTIES.— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The duties of the task 21
force shall include— 22
‘‘(i) facilitating cooperation, coordina-23
tion, and mutual accountability for the 24
Federal Government, Indian Tribes, and 25
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State, local, and territorial governments to 1
enhance data sharing and transparency to 2
build more robust and secure domestic 3
supply chains for critical minerals in sup-4
port of the purposes described in para-5
graph (1); 6
‘‘(ii) providing recommendations with 7
respect to— 8
‘‘(I) increasing capacities for 9
mining, processing, refinement, reuse, 10
and recycling of critical minerals in 11
the United States to facilitate the en-12
vironmentally responsible production 13
of domestic resources to meet national 14
critical mineral needs, in consultation 15
with Tribal and local communities; 16
‘‘(II) identifying how statutes, 17
regulations, and policies related to the 18
critical mineral supply chain, such as 19
stockpiling and development finance, 20
could be modified to accelerate envi-21
ronmentally responsible domestic and 22
international production of critical 23
minerals, in consultation with Indian 24
Tribes and local communities; 25
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‘‘(III) strengthening the domestic 1
workforce to support growing critical 2
mineral supply chains with good-pay-3
ing, safe jobs in the United States; 4
‘‘(IV) identifying alternative do-5
mestic and global sources to critical 6
minerals that the United States cur-7
rently relies on the People’s Republic 8
of China or other covered countries 9
for mining, processing, refining, and 10
recycling, including the availability, 11
cost, and quality of those domestic al-12
ternatives; 13
‘‘(V) identifying critical minerals 14
and critical mineral supply chains that 15
the United States can onshore, at a 16
competitive availability, cost, and 17
quality, for those minerals and supply 18
chains that the United States relies 19
on the People’s Republic of China or 20
other covered countries to provide; 21
‘‘(VI) opportunities for the Fed-22
eral Government, Indian Tribes, and 23
State, local, and territorial govern-24
ments to mitigate risks to the national 25
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security of the United States with re-1
spect to supply chains for critical min-2
erals that the United States currently 3
relies on the People’s Republic of 4
China or other covered countries for 5
mining, processing, refining, and recy-6
cling; and 7
‘‘(VII) evaluating and integrating 8
the recommendations of the Critical 9
Minerals Subcommittee of the Na-10
tional Science and Technology Council 11
into the recommendations of the task 12
force; 13
‘‘(iii) prioritizing the recommendations 14
in clause (ii), taking into consideration eco-15
nomic costs and focusing on the critical 16
mineral supply chains with vulnerabilities 17
posing the most significant risks to the na-18
tional security of the United States; 19
‘‘(iv) recommending specific strate-20
gies, to be carried out in coordination with 21
the Secretary of State and the Secretary of 22
Commerce, to strengthen international 23
partnerships in furtherance of critical min-24
erals supply chain security with inter-25
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national allies and partners, including a 1
strategy to collaborate with governments of 2
the allies and partners described in sub-3
paragraph (B) to develop advanced mining, 4
refining, separation and processing tech-5
nologies; and 6
‘‘(v) other duties, as determined by 7
the Chair. 8
‘‘(B) A
LLIES AND PARTNERS .—The allies 9
and partners referred to in subparagraph (A) 10
include— 11
‘‘(i) countries participating in the 12
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue; 13
‘‘(ii) countries that are— 14
‘‘(I) signatories to the Abraham 15
Accords; or 16
‘‘(II) participants in the Negev 17
Forum; 18
‘‘(iii) countries that are members of 19
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; 20
and 21
‘‘(iv) other countries or multilateral 22
partnerships the task force determines to 23
be appropriate. 24
‘‘(C) R
EPORT.—The Chair shall— 25
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‘‘(i) not later than 60 days after the 1
date of enactment of this subsection, and 2
every 60 days thereafter until the require-3
ments under subsection (a) are satisfied, 4
brief the appropriate committees of Con-5
gress on the status of the compliance of 6
the President with completing the require-7
ments under that subsection; 8
‘‘(ii) not later than 2 years after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, submit to 10
the appropriate committees of Congress a 11
report, which shall be submitted in unclas-12
sified form, but may include a classified 13
annex, that describes any findings, guide-14
lines, and recommendations created in per-15
forming the duties under subparagraph 16
(A); 17
‘‘(iii) not later than 120 days after 18
the date on which the Chair submits the 19
report under clause (ii), publish that report 20
in the Federal Register and on the website 21
of the Office of Management and Budget, 22
except that the Chair shall redact informa-23
tion from the report that the Chair deter-24
mines could pose a risk to the national se-25
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curity of the United States by being pub-1
licly available; and 2
‘‘(iv) brief the appropriate committees 3
of Congress twice per year. 4
‘‘(6) S
UNSET.—The task force shall terminate 5
on the date that is 90 days after the date on which 6
the task force completes the requirements under 7
paragraph (5)(C).’’. 8
(b) GAO S
TUDY.— 9
(1) S
TUDY REQUIRED.—The Comptroller Gen-10
eral of the United States shall conduct a study ex-11
amining the Federal and State regulatory landscape 12
related to improving domestic supply chains for crit-13
ical minerals in the United States. 14
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 18 months after 15
the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 16
General of the United States shall submit to the ap-17
propriate committees of Congress a report that de-18
scribes the results of the study under paragraph (1). 19
(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 20
(A) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -21
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of 22
Congress’’ means— 23
(i) the Committees on Homeland Se-24
curity and Governmental Affairs, Energy 25
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and Natural Resources, Armed Services, 1
Environment and Public Works, Com-2
merce, Science, and Transportation, Fi-3
nance, and Foreign Relations of the Sen-4
ate; and 5
(ii) the Committees on Oversight and 6
Accountability, Natural Resources, Armed 7
Services, Ways and Means, Foreign Af-8
fairs, and Energy and Commerce of the 9
House of Representatives. 10
(B) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘‘crit-11
ical mineral’’ has the meaning given the term in 12
section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 13
U.S.C. 1606(a)). 14
Æ
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