II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1871
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE8, 2023
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself, Mr. ROMNEY, and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
LLIED COUNTRY.—The term ‘‘allied coun-3
try’’ means— 4
(A) a country described in section 4801(1) 5
of title 10, United States Code; and 6
(B) a country that the task force deter-7
mines is an ally of the United States for pur-8
poses of this Act. 9
(2) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -10
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-11
gress’’ means— 12
(A) the Committees on Homeland Security 13
and Governmental Affairs, Energy and Natural 14
Resources, Armed Services, and Foreign Rela-15
tions of the Senate; and 16
(B) the Committees on Oversight and Ac-17
countability, Natural Resources, Armed Serv-18
ices, and Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-19
resentatives. 20
(3) C
OVERED COUNTRY .—The term ‘‘covered 21
country’’ means— 22
(A) a covered nation (as defined in section 23
4872(d) of title 10, United States Code); and 24
(B) any other country determined by the 25
task force to be a geostrategic competitor or ad-26
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versary of the United States with respect to 1
critical minerals. 2
(4) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘‘critical 3
mineral’’ has the meaning given the term in section 4
7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 5
1606(a)). 6
(5) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 7
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-8
et. 9
(6) T
ASK FORCE.—The term ‘‘task force’’ 10
means the task force established under section 4(b). 11
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 12
Congress finds that— 13
(1) current supply chains of critical minerals 14
pose a great risk to the homeland and national secu-15
rity of the United States; and 16
(2) critical minerals contribute to transpor-17
tation, technology, renewable energy, military equip-18
ment and machinery, and other relevant entities cru-19
cial for the homeland and national security of the 20
United States. 21
SEC. 4. INTERGOVERNMENTAL CRITICAL MINERALS TASK 22
FORCE. 23
(a) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of the task force is to 24
assess the reliance of the United States on the People’s 25
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Republic of China, and other covered countries, for critical 1
minerals, and the resulting homeland and national secu-2
rity risks associated with that reliance, at each level of 3
the Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial govern-4
ments. 5
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 6
the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall estab-7
lish a task force to facilitate cooperation, coordination, 8
and mutual accountability among each level of the Federal 9
Government and State, local, Tribal, and territorial gov-10
ernments on a holistic response to the dependence on cov-11
ered countries for critical minerals across the United 12
States. 13
(c) C
OMPOSITION; MEETINGS.— 14
(1) A
PPOINTMENT.—The Director shall appoint 15
to the task force representatives with expertise in 16
critical mineral supply chains from Federal agencies, 17
State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, and 18
academic research institutions, including— 19
(A) not less than 1 representative from 20
each of— 21
(i) the Department of Agriculture; 22
(ii) the Department of Commerce; 23
(iii) the Department of Defense; 24
(iv) the Department of Energy; 25
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(v) the Department of Homeland Se-1
curity; 2
(vi) the Department of Housing and 3
Urban Development; 4
(vii) the Department of the Interior; 5
(viii) the Department of State; 6
(ix) the Department of Transpor-7
tation; 8
(x) the Environmental Protection 9
Agency; 10
(xi) the National Science Foundation; 11
(xii) the United States Geological Sur-12
vey; and 13
(xiii) any other relevant Federal enti-14
ty, as determined by the Director; and 15
(B) in consultation with relevant entities, 16
not less than 15 representatives from a diverse 17
cross-section of State, local, Tribal, and terri-18
torial governments, including not less than 5 19
representatives from each of— 20
(i) State governments; 21
(ii) local governments; 22
(iii) Tribal governments; and 23
(iv) territorial governments. 24
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(2) CHAIR.—The Director may serve as chair of 1
the task force, or designate a representative of the 2
task force to serve as chair. 3
(3) M
EETINGS.— 4
(A) I
NITIAL MEETING.—Not later than 90 5
days after the date on which all representatives 6
of the task force have been appointed, the task 7
force shall hold the first meeting of the task 8
force. 9
(B) F
REQUENCY.—The task force shall 10
meet not less than 1 time per quarter. 11
(d) D
UTIES.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The duties of the task force 13
shall include— 14
(A) facilitating cooperation, coordination, 15
and mutual accountability for the Federal Gov-16
ernment and State, local, Tribal, and territorial 17
governments to enhance data sharing and 18
transparency in the supply chains for critical 19
minerals; 20
(B) addressing the homeland and national 21
security risks associated with the current crit-22
ical mineral supply chains of the United States; 23
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(C) identifying a list of critical minerals 1
most important for securing the homeland and 2
national security of the United States; 3
(D) using the list described in subpara-4
graph (C) to assess— 5
(i) the amount of critical minerals 6
mined, processed, refined, and recycled by 7
the People’s Republic of China, other cov-8
ered countries, and the United States; and 9
(ii) critical minerals that the task 10
force determines that the Federal Govern-11
ment and State, local, Tribal, and terri-12
torial governments still need to obtain 13
from covered countries and recommend— 14
(I) alternative minerals, available 15
in the United States, that can sub-16
stitute for critical minerals that the 17
United States currently relies on the 18
People’s Republic of China or other 19
covered countries for mining, proc-20
essing, refining, and recycling; and 21
(II) opportunities for the Federal 22
Government and State, local, Tribal, 23
and territorial governments to miti-24
gate risk to the homeland and na-25
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tional security of the United States 1
with respect to supply chains for crit-2
ical minerals that the United States 3
currently relies on the People’s Re-4
public of China or other covered coun-5
tries for mining, processing, refining, 6
and recycling; 7
(E) providing recommendations address-8
ing— 9
(i) research and development into 10
emerging technologies necessary to expand 11
existing critical mineral supply chains in 12
the United States and to establish new 13
critical mineral supply chains in the United 14
States; 15
(ii) increasing opportunities for min-16
ing, processing, refinement, reuse, and re-17
cycling of critical minerals, including crit-18
ical minerals listed on the list described in 19
subparagraph (C), in the United States; 20
(iii) strengthening the domestic work-21
force to support growing critical mineral 22
supply chains in the United States; and 23
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(iv) improving partnerships between 1
the United States and allied countries to 2
improve critical mineral supply chains; and 3
(F) other duties, as determined by the Di-4
rector. 5
(2) R
EPORT.—The Director shall— 6
(A) not later than 2 years after the date 7
of enactment of this Act, submit to the appro-8
priate committees of Congress a report that de-9
scribes any findings, guidelines, and rec-10
ommendations created in performing the duties 11
under paragraph (1); and 12
(B) not later than 120 days after the date 13
on which the Director submits the report under 14
subparagraph (A), publish that report in the 15
Federal Register, except that the Director shall 16
redact information from the report that the Di-17
rector determines could pose a risk to the 18
homeland and national security of the United 19
States by being publicly available. 20
(e) S
UNSET.—The task force shall terminate on the 21
date that is 90 days after the date on which the task force 22
completes the requirements under subsection (d)(2). 23
Æ
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