Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB596 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 596
55 To establish a pilot program to support domestic critical material processing,
66 and for other purposes.
77 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
88 FEBRUARY13, 2025
99 Mr. H
1010 ICKENLOOPER(for himself, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. COONS, and Mr. YOUNG)
1111 introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
1212 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
1313 A BILL
1414 To establish a pilot program to support domestic critical
1515 material processing, and for other purposes.
1616 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1717 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
1818 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
1919 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Critical Materials Fu-4
2020 ture Act of 2025’’. 5
2121 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
2222 In this Act: 7
2323 (1) C
2424 OUNTRY OF RISK.—The term ‘‘country of 8
2525 risk’’ has the meaning given the term in section 9
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2929 10114(a) of the Research and Development, Com-1
3030 petition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 18912(a)). 2
3131 (2) C
3232 RITICAL MATERIAL.—The term ‘‘critical 3
3333 material’’ has the meaning given the term in section 4
3434 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 5
3535 1606(a)). 6
3636 (3) D
3737 OMESTIC.—The term ‘‘domestic’’ means 7
3838 facilities operating within the United States or with-8
3939 in any territory or possession of the United States. 9
4040 (4) E
4141 LIGIBLE PROJECT.—The term ‘‘eligible 10
4242 project’’ means a project that refines and processes 11
4343 or recycles raw critical materials into purified forms 12
4444 suitable for first-use applications. 13
4545 (5) E
4646 NTITY OF CONCERN.— 14
4747 (A) I
4848 N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘entity of 15
4949 concern’’ has the meaning given the term in 16
5050 section 10114(a) of the Research and Develop-17
5151 ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 18
5252 U.S.C. 18912(a)); and 19
5353 (B) I
5454 NCLUSION.—The term ‘‘entity of con-20
5555 cern’’ includes an entity that the Secretary has 21
5656 determined, using a risk-based approach, is 22
5757 subject to the control or influence of a foreign 23
5858 nation whose strategic interests concerning crit-24
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6262 ical materials does not align with the strategic 1
6363 interests of the United States. 2
6464 (6) I
6565 NNOVATIVE FINANCIAL TOOLS .—The term 3
6666 ‘‘innovative financial tools’’ means financial instru-4
6767 ments to support demand-side economic mecha-5
6868 nisms, including— 6
6969 (A) pricing support mechanisms, such as 7
7070 contracts for difference and price floors, ad-8
7171 vanced market commitments, and forward con-9
7272 tracts; and 10
7373 (B) other transactions that the Secretary 11
7474 may enter into under section 646 of the De-12
7575 partment of Energy Organization Act (42 13
7676 U.S.C. 7256). 14
7777 (7) P
7878 ILOT PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘Pilot Pro-15
7979 gram’’ means the Domestic Critical Material Proc-16
8080 essing Pilot Program established under section 4(a). 17
8181 (8) R
8282 ELIABLE SOURCES.— 18
8383 (A) I
8484 N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘reliable 19
8585 source’’ has the meaning given the term in sec-20
8686 tion 12 of the Strategic and Critical Materials 21
8787 Stock Piling Act (50 U.S.C. 98h–3). 22
8888 (B) I
8989 NCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘reliable 23
9090 source’’ includes facilities owned by, controlled 24
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9494 by, or subject to the jurisdiction of any coun-1
9595 try— 2
9696 (i) with which the United States has 3
9797 a free trade agreement in effect; and 4
9898 (ii) designated a major non-NATO 5
9999 ally under section 517 of the Foreign As-6
100100 sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2321k). 7
101101 (9) S
102102 ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 8
103103 the Secretary of Energy. 9
104104 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 10
105105 The purposes of this Act are— 11
106106 (1) to support domestic critical material proc-12
107107 essing with innovative financial tools to reduce sup-13
108108 ply chain vulnerabilities and enhance energy and na-14
109109 tional security; and 15
110110 (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative fi-16
111111 nancial tools in supporting investment in and ex-17
112112 panding domestic critical materials processing, in-18
113113 cluding the impact of different support mechanisms 19
114114 on project development for various critical materials 20
115115 and fostering more liquid, transparent, and predict-21
116116 able markets for critical materials. 22
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120120 SEC. 4. DOMESTIC CRITICAL MATERIAL PROCESSING 1
121121 PILOT PROGRAM. 2
122122 (a) E
123123 STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 3
124124 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall es-4
125125 tablish a pilot program, to be known as the ‘‘Domestic 5
126126 Critical Material Processing Pilot Program’’, to support 6
127127 not fewer than 3 domestic critical material processing 7
128128 projects. 8
129129 (b) O
130130 BJECTIVES.—The objectives of the Pilot Pro-9
131131 gram are— 10
132132 (1) to provide financial stability and attract pri-11
133133 vate investment in eligible domestic critical material 12
134134 processing projects; 13
135135 (2) to analyze how different financial tools in-14
136136 fluence critical material market dynamics and 15
137137 projects and the estimated level of financial support 16
138138 needed to secure reliable United States supply 17
139139 chains for various critical materials and support a 18
140140 sufficient domestic critical materials processing in-19
141141 dustry; and 20
142142 (3) to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities and 21
143143 enhance energy security and national security. 22
144144 (c) R
145145 EQUIREMENTS.— 23
146146 (1) I
147147 MPLEMENTATION.— 24
148148 (A) R
149149 EGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 25
150150 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 26
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154154 the Secretary shall issue regulations to imple-1
155155 ment the Pilot Program. 2
156156 (B) O
157157 THER TRANSACTION AUTHORITY .—In 3
158158 carrying out the Pilot Program, the Secretary 4
159159 shall have the authority to enter into other 5
160160 transactions in the same manner and subject to 6
161161 the same terms and conditions as transactions 7
162162 that the Secretary may enter into under section 8
163163 646 of the Department of Energy Organization 9
164164 Act (42 U.S.C. 7256). 10
165165 (C) F
166166 LEXIBLE HIRING AUTHORITY .—The 11
167167 Secretary may appoint and fix the compensa-12
168168 tion of such temporary personnel as may be 13
169169 necessary to carry out and implement the Pilot 14
170170 Program, without regard to the provisions of 15
171171 subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United 16
172172 States Code, governing appointments in com-17
173173 petitive service and compensation of personnel. 18
174174 (D) C
175175 ONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall 19
176176 consult outside stakeholders and experts, in-20
177177 cluding mining and critical material processing 21
178178 industry representatives, financial experts, and 22
179179 academic researchers, during development of 23
180180 the Pilot Program for purposes of improving 24
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184184 the effectiveness and efficiency of the Pilot Pro-1
185185 gram. 2
186186 (2) D
187187 IVERSITY.— 3
188188 (A) I
189189 N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-4
190190 graph (B), the Pilot Program shall provide sup-5
191191 port for the processing of not fewer than 3 dif-6
192192 ferent critical materials in order to gain insight 7
193193 into the impact of innovative financial tools on 8
194194 different critical material markets. 9
195195 (B) L
196196 IMITATION.—Support provided under 10
197197 subparagraph (A) to a single critical material 11
198198 shall not exceed 50 percent of any funding pro-12
199199 vided to the Pilot Program under subsection 13
200200 (h). 14
201201 (3) S
202202 UNSET.—The Pilot Program shall termi-15
203203 nate on the date that is not later than 5 years after 16
204204 the date the Pilot Program is established under sub-17
205205 section (a). 18
206206 (d) A
207207 PPLICATIONS.— 19
208208 (1) I
209209 N GENERAL.—Applications under the Pilot 20
210210 Program for eligible projects shall be submitted to 21
211211 the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and 22
212212 containing such information as the Secretary may 23
213213 require. 24
214214 (2) E
215215 LIGIBILITY CRITERIA.— 25
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219219 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall re-1
220220 view and select applications under the Pilot 2
221221 Program for eligible projects based on— 3
222222 (i) the potential of the eligible project 4
223223 to enhance the economic, energy, and na-5
224224 tional security of the United States; 6
225225 (ii) the economic competitiveness of 7
226226 the eligible project; 8
227227 (iii) the economic and financial sus-9
228228 tainability of the eligible project, using in-10
229229 formation such as— 11
230230 (I) the potential for the applicant 12
231231 of the eligible project to secure an 13
232232 offtake agreement if the eligible 14
233233 project is selected; and 15
234234 (II) an analysis of the estimated 16
235235 production costs of the eligible project 17
236236 and prevailing or anticipated market 18
237237 prices; 19
238238 (iv) the potential of the eligible project 20
239239 to mitigate risks associated with importing 21
240240 critical materials from entities of concern; 22
241241 (v) the prioritization requirements de-23
242242 scribed in subparagraph (B); and 24
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246246 (vi) other factors, as determined by 1
247247 the Secretary, in coordination with the 2
248248 agencies described in subsection (e). 3
249249 (B) P
250250 RIORITY.—In selecting applications 4
251251 under the Pilot Program for eligible projects, 5
252252 the Secretary shall prioritize eligible projects— 6
253253 (i) that use feedstock from domestic 7
254254 or reliable sources, with higher priority 8
255255 given to eligible projects that have greater 9
256256 use of feedstock from domestic sources; 10
257257 (ii) the selection of which would sup-11
258258 port the ability of the applicant to secure 12
259259 an offtake agreement with domestic or reli-13
260260 able sources; and 14
261261 (iii) that are the most economically 15
262262 competitive, as determined by the Sec-16
263263 retary, based on factors including— 17
264264 (I) the potential for the applicant 18
265265 of the eligible project to secure an 19
266266 offtake agreement if selected; and 20
267267 (II) the difference between the 21
268268 estimated production costs of the eli-22
269269 gible project and prevailing or antici-23
270270 pated market prices. 24
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274274 (3) TIMELINE.—The Secretary shall select ap-1
275275 plications under the Pilot Program for eligible 2
276276 projects not later than 1 year after the date of en-3
277277 actment of this Act. 4
278278 (e) C
279279 OORDINATION.— 5
280280 (1) I
281281 N GENERAL.—To ensure the efficient im-6
282282 plementation and operation of the Pilot Program, 7
283283 the Secretary shall coordinate with— 8
284284 (A) the Secretary of Commerce; 9
285285 (B) the Secretary of Defense; 10
286286 (C) the Secretary of the Interior; 11
287287 (D) the Secretary of State; 12
288288 (E) the Director of the United States Geo-13
289289 logical Survey; 14
290290 (F) the United States Trade Representa-15
291291 tive; and 16
292292 (G) the heads of other Federal depart-17
293293 ments and agencies, as determined by the Sec-18
294294 retary. 19
295295 (2) S
296296 ECURITY RESEARCH AND DEVELOP -20
297297 MENT.—When selecting applications and deter-21
298298 mining the level of financial support for each project 22
299299 under the Pilot Program, the Secretary shall coordi-23
300300 nate with the Secretary of Defense to incorporate in-24
301301 sights from the Open Price Exploration for National 25
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305305 Security research and development program of the 1
306306 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 2
307307 (f) S
308308 TUDY.— 3
309309 (1) I
310310 N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 4
311311 the date on which the Pilot Program terminates 5
312312 under subsection (c)(3), the Secretary shall conduct 6
313313 and publish a study on— 7
314314 (A) the impact of innovative financial tools 8
315315 on the critical materials sector and the relative 9
316316 cost-effectiveness of those tools in supporting 10
317317 domestic critical materials processing projects 11
318318 and developing more liquid, transparent, and 12
319319 predictable markets for critical materials; 13
320320 (B) the estimated level of financial support 14
321321 needed to secure reliable United States supply 15
322322 chains for various critical materials and support 16
323323 a sufficient domestic critical materials proc-17
324324 essing industry; 18
325325 (C) the potential of critical material recy-19
326326 cling to support the domestic critical materials 20
327327 market; 21
328328 (D) the effectiveness of the Pilot Program, 22
329329 including an evaluation of each eligible project 23
330330 supported by the Pilot Program; and 24
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334334 (E) whether the models of the Open Price 1
335335 Exploration for National Security research and 2
336336 development program of the Defense Advanced 3
337337 Research Projects Agency allowed the Pilot 4
338338 Program to better anticipate market trends, op-5
339339 timize resource allocation, and provide the ap-6
340340 propriate level of support based on current and 7
341341 future critical material market needs. 8
342342 (2) I
343343 NSIGHTS.—The study under paragraph (1) 9
344344 shall include insights into concerns of private inves-10
345345 tors in different critical material markets and the 11
346346 impact of innovative financial tools on catalyzing 12
347347 final investment decisions. 13
348348 (3) S
349349 TAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT .—The study 14
350350 under paragraph (1) shall be carried out in consulta-15
351351 tion with relevant stakeholders, as determined by the 16
352352 Secretary, including mining and critical material 17
353353 processing industry representatives, financial ex-18
354354 perts, local governments hosting critical material 19
355355 processing projects, and academic researchers. 20
356356 (4) DARPA
357357 OPEN PROGRAM.—The Secretary 21
358358 shall share the results of the study under paragraph 22
359359 (1) with the Open Price Exploration for National 23
360360 Security research and development program of the 24
361361 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to in-25
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365365 form ongoing research and development of tools to 1
366366 support transparency in domestic critical materials 2
367367 markets. 3
368368 (g) R
369369 EPORT.— 4
370370 (1) I
371371 N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall submit 5
372372 to the Committees on Energy and Natural Re-6
373373 sources, Foreign Relations, and Armed Services of 7
374374 the Senate, and the Committees on Natural Re-8
375375 sources, Energy and Commerce, and Armed Services 9
376376 of the House of Representatives, an annual report 10
377377 for each year that the Pilot Program is carried out. 11
378378 (2) C
379379 ONTENTS.—The report under paragraph 12
380380 (1) shall include— 13
381381 (A) activities, expenditures, and outcomes 14
382382 of the Pilot Program; 15
383383 (B) recommendations to Congress on the 16
384384 continuation or expansion of the Pilot Program; 17
385385 and 18
386386 (C) recommendations for how the Federal 19
387387 Government should use innovative financial 20
388388 tools— 21
389389 (i) to increase domestic critical mate-22
390390 rials processing capacity; 23
391391 (ii) to strengthen domestic critical 24
392392 material supply chains by increasing 25
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396396 United States processing capacity using 1
397397 domestic feedstock; 2
398398 (iii) to mitigate market volatility; 3
399399 (iv) to boost price transparency in 4
400400 critical materials markets; 5
401401 (v) to leverage market indices in coun-6
402402 tries other than those designated as coun-7
403403 tries of risk; 8
404404 (vi) to ensure long-term adequate sup-9
405405 plies of critical materials for the economy 10
406406 of the United States; and 11
407407 (vii) to increase the domestic recycling 12
408408 of critical materials. 13
409409 (h) F
410410 UNDING.— 14
411411 (1) F
412412 INANCIAL MECHANISMS .— 15
413413 (A) I
414414 N GENERAL.—In establishing and car-16
415415 rying out the Pilot Program, the Secretary shall 17
416416 enter into agreements, including contracts, 18
417417 grants, and cooperative agreements, and other 19
418418 transactions, as determined by the Secretary, to 20
419419 enable the use of innovative financial tools to 21
420420 support domestic critical material processing 22
421421 projects. 23
422422 (B) A
423423 UTHORITY.—In carrying out sub-24
424424 paragraph (A), the Secretary may use innova-25
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428428 tive financial tools, including price support such 1
429429 as contracts for differences, and leverage func-2
430430 tions to develop and drive critical materials 3
431431 processing to entities that are not entities of 4
432432 concern, under such terms and conditions as 5
433433 the Secretary determines to be necessary or ap-6
434434 propriate. 7
435435 (2) R
436436 EINVESTMENT OF REVENUE .— 8
437437 (A) E
438438 STABLISHMENT.—There is estab-9
439439 lished in the Treasury of the United States a 10
440440 fund, to be known as the ‘‘Critical Materials 11
441441 Revolving Fund’’ (referred to in this paragraph 12
442442 as the ‘‘Fund’’). 13
443443 (B) P
444444 URPOSES.—The Fund shall be avail-14
445445 able to the Secretary as a revolving fund— 15
446446 (i) to reinvest amounts generated 16
447447 from eligible projects into new critical ma-17
448448 terials processing projects under the Pilot 18
449449 Program; and 19
450450 (ii) to further enhance the objectives 20
451451 of the Pilot Program. 21
452452 (3) A
453453 UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 22
454454 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-23
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458458 retary to carry out this Act $750,000,000, to remain 1
459459 available until expended. 2
460460 Æ
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