II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 823
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
MARCH3, 2025
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity 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. 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 August 29, 2014, the World Trade Or-22
ganization Dispute Settlement Body adopted find-23
ings that the export restraints by the People’s Re-24
public of China on rare earth metals, which harmed 25
manufacturers and workers in the United States, 26
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violated obligations under the General Agreement on 1
Tariffs and Trade 1994 and China’s Protocol of Ac-2
cession to the World Trade Organization. 3
SEC. 3. INTERGOVERNMENTAL CRITICAL MINERALS TASK 4
FORCE. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 5 of the National Mate-6
rials and Minerals Policy, Research and Development Act 7
of 1980 (30 U.S.C. 1604) is amended by adding at the 8
end the following: 9
‘‘(g) I
NTERGOVERNMENTAL CRITICALMINERALS 10
T
ASKFORCE.— 11
‘‘(1) P
URPOSES.—The purposes of the task 12
force established under paragraph (3)(B) are— 13
‘‘(A) to assess the reliance of the United 14
States on the People’s Republic of China, and 15
other covered countries, for critical minerals, 16
and the resulting national security risks associ-17
ated with that reliance; 18
‘‘(B) to make recommendations to the 19
President for the implementation of this Act 20
with regard to critical minerals, including— 21
‘‘(i) the congressional declarations of 22
policies in section 3; and 23
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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 supply chains for critical min-5
erals; 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) consistent with ongoing efforts of 12
other Federal departments, agencies, and other 13
entities, to facilitate co-operation, coordination, 14
and mutual accountability among each level of 15
the Federal Government, Indian Tribes, and 16
State, local, and territorial governments, on a 17
holistic response to the dependence on covered 18
countries for critical minerals across the United 19
States. 20
‘‘(2) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 21
‘‘(A) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -22
GRESS.—The term ‘appropriate committees of 23
Congress’ means— 24
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‘‘(i) the Committees on Homeland Se-1
curity and Governmental Affairs, Energy 2
and Natural Resources, Armed Services, 3
Environment and Public Works, Com-4
merce, Science, and Transportation, Fi-5
nance, and Foreign Relations of the Sen-6
ate; and 7
‘‘(ii) the Committees on Oversight and 8
Government Reform, Natural Resources, 9
Armed Services, Ways and Means, Foreign 10
Affairs, and Energy and Commerce of the 11
House of Representatives. 12
‘‘(B) C
HAIRPERSON; CO-CHAIRPERSON.— 13
The terms ‘Chairperson’ and ‘Co-Chairperson’, 14
respectively, mean the Chairperson or Co-Chair-15
person of the task force designated by the 16
President pursuant to paragraph (3)(A). 17
‘‘(C) C
OVERED COUNTRY .—The term ‘cov-18
ered country’ means— 19
‘‘(i) a covered nation (as defined in 20
section 4872(d) of title 10, United States 21
Code); and 22
‘‘(ii) any other country determined by 23
the task force to be a geostrategic compet-24
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itor or adversary of the United States with 1
respect to critical minerals. 2
‘‘(D) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘crit-3
ical mineral’ has the meaning given the term 4
‘critical material’ in section 7002(a) of the En-5
ergy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)). 6
‘‘(E) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian 7
Tribe’ has the meaning given the term in sec-8
tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 9
Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 10
‘‘(F) T
ASK FORCE.—The term ‘task force’ 11
means the task force established under para-12
graph (3)(B). 13
‘‘(3) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days 14
after the date of enactment of this subsection, the 15
President shall— 16
‘‘(A) designate a Chairperson, or 2 individ-17
uals as Co-Chairpersons, for the task force, who 18
shall be— 19
‘‘(i) the Assistant to the President for 20
National Security Affairs; 21
‘‘(ii) the Assistant to the President for 22
Economic Policy; or 23
‘‘(iii) another relevant member of the 24
Executive Office of the President; and 25
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‘‘(B) acting through the Executive Office 1
of the President, establish a task force. 2
‘‘(4) C
OMPOSITION; MEETINGS.— 3
‘‘(A) A
PPOINTMENT.—The Chairperson or 4
Co-Chairpersons, in consultation with key inter-5
governmental, private, and public sector stake-6
holders, shall appoint to the task force rep-7
resentatives with expertise in critical mineral 8
supply chains from Federal agencies, including 9
not less than 1 representative from each of— 10
‘‘(i) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 11
‘‘(ii) the Bureau of Land Manage-12
ment; 13
‘‘(iii) the Critical Minerals Sub-14
committee of the National Science and 15
Technology Council; 16
‘‘(iv) the Department of Agriculture; 17
‘‘(v) the Department of Commerce; 18
‘‘(vi) the Department of Defense; 19
‘‘(vii) the Department of Energy; 20
‘‘(viii) the Department of Homeland 21
Security; 22
‘‘(ix) the Department of the Interior; 23
‘‘(x) the Department of Labor; 24
‘‘(xi) the Department of State; 25
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‘‘(xii) the Department of Transpor-1
tation; 2
‘‘(xiii) the Environmental Protection 3
Agency; 4
‘‘(xiv) the Export-Import Bank of the 5
United States; 6
‘‘(xv) the Forest Service; 7
‘‘(xvi) the General Services Adminis-8
tration; 9
‘‘(xvii) the National Economic Coun-10
cil; 11
‘‘(xviii) the National Science Founda-12
tion; 13
‘‘(xix) the National Security Council; 14
‘‘(xx) the Office of Management and 15
Budget; 16
‘‘(xxi) the Office of the United States 17
Trade Representative; 18
‘‘(xxii) the United States Inter-19
national Development Finance Corpora-20
tion; 21
‘‘(xxiii) the United States Geological 22
Survey; and 23
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‘‘(xxiv) any other relevant Federal en-1
tity, as determined by the Chairperson or 2
Co-Chairpersons. 3
‘‘(B) C
ONSULTATION.—The task force 4
shall consult individuals with expertise in crit-5
ical mineral supply chains, individuals from 6
States whose communities, businesses, and in-7
dustries are involved in aspects of critical min-8
eral supply chains, including mining and proc-9
essing operations, and individuals from a di-10
verse and balanced cross-section of— 11
‘‘(i) intergovernmental consultees, in-12
cluding— 13
‘‘(I) State governments; 14
‘‘(II) local governments; 15
‘‘(III) territorial governments; 16
and 17
‘‘(IV) Indian Tribes; and 18
‘‘(ii) other stakeholders, including— 19
‘‘(I) academic research institu-20
tions; 21
‘‘(II) corporations; 22
‘‘(III) nonprofit organizations; 23
‘‘(IV) private sector stakeholders; 24
‘‘(V) trade associations; 25
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‘‘(VI) mining industry stake-1
holders; and 2
‘‘(VII) labor representatives. 3
‘‘(C) M
EETINGS.— 4
‘‘(i) I
NITIAL MEETING.—Not later 5
than 90 days after the date on which all 6
representatives of the task force have been 7
appointed, the task force shall hold the 8
first meeting of the task force. 9
‘‘(ii) F
REQUENCY.—The task force 10
shall meet not less than once every 90 11
days. 12
‘‘(5) D
UTIES.— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The duties of the task 14
force shall include— 15
‘‘(i) facilitating co-operation, coordina-16
tion, and mutual accountability for the 17
Federal Government, Indian Tribes, and 18
State, local, and territorial governments to 19
enhance data sharing and transparency to 20
build more robust and secure domestic 21
supply chains for critical minerals in sup-22
port of the purposes described in para-23
graph (1); 24
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‘‘(ii) providing recommendations with 1
respect to— 2
‘‘(I) increasing capacities for 3
mining, exploration, beneficiation, 4
processing, refinement, reuse, and re-5
cycling of critical minerals in the 6
United States to facilitate the envi-7
ronmentally responsible production of 8
domestic resources to meet national 9
critical mineral needs, in consultation 10
with Tribal and local communities; 11
‘‘(II) identifying how statutes, 12
regulations, and policies related to the 13
critical mineral supply chain, such as 14
stockpiling and development finance, 15
could be modified to accelerate envi-16
ronmentally responsible domestic and 17
international production of critical 18
minerals, in consultation with Indian 19
Tribes and local communities; 20
‘‘(III) strengthening the domestic 21
workforce to support growing critical 22
mineral supply chains with good-pay-23
ing, safe jobs in the United States; 24
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‘‘(IV) identifying alternative do-1
mestic sources to critical minerals 2
that the United States currently relies 3
on the People’s Republic of China or 4
other covered countries for mining, 5
processing, refining, and recycling, in-6
cluding the availability, capacity, cost, 7
and quality of those domestic alter-8
natives; 9
‘‘(V) identifying critical minerals 10
and critical mineral supply chains that 11
the United States can onshore, in 12
whole or in part, at a competitive 13
value and quality, for those minerals 14
and supply chains that the United 15
States relies on the People’s Republic 16
of China or other covered countries to 17
provide; 18
‘‘(VI) opportunities for the Fed-19
eral Government, Indian Tribes, and 20
State, local, and territorial govern-21
ments to mitigate risks to the national 22
security of the United States with re-23
spect to supply chains for critical min-24
erals that the United States currently 25
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relies on the People’s Republic of 1
China or other covered countries for 2
mining, processing, refining, and recy-3
cling; and 4
‘‘(VII) evaluating and integrating 5
the recommendations of the Critical 6
Minerals Subcommittee of the Na-7
tional Science and Technology Council 8
into the recommendations of the task 9
force; 10
‘‘(iii) prioritizing the recommendations 11
in clause (ii), taking into consideration eco-12
nomic costs and focusing on the critical 13
mineral supply chains with vulnerabilities 14
posing the most significant risks to the na-15
tional security of the United States; 16
‘‘(iv) recommending specific strate-17
gies, to be carried out in coordination with 18
the Secretary of State and the Secretary of 19
Commerce, to strengthen international 20
partnerships in furtherance of critical min-21
erals supply chain security with inter-22
national allies and partners, including a 23
strategy to collaborate with governments of 24
the allies and partners described in sub-25
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paragraph (B) to develop advanced mining, 1
refining, separation and processing tech-2
nologies; and 3
‘‘(v) other duties, as determined by 4
the Chairperson or Co-Chairpersons. 5
‘‘(B) A
LLIES AND PARTNERS .—The allies 6
and partners referred to in subparagraph (A) 7
include— 8
‘‘(i) countries participating in the 9
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue; 10
‘‘(ii) countries that are signatories to 11
the Abraham Accords; and 12
‘‘(iii) countries that are members of 13
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 14
‘‘(C) R
EPORT.—The Chairperson or Co- 15
Chairpersons shall— 16
‘‘(i) not later than 60 days after the 17
date of enactment of this subsection, and 18
every 60 days thereafter until the require-19
ments under subsection (a) are satisfied, 20
brief the appropriate committees of Con-21
gress on the status of the compliance of 22
the President with completing the require-23
ments under that subsection; 24
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‘‘(ii) not later than 2 years after the 1
date of enactment of this subsection, sub-2
mit to the appropriate committees of Con-3
gress a report, which shall be submitted in 4
unclassified form, but may include a classi-5
fied annex, that describes any findings, 6
guidelines, and recommendations created 7
in performing the duties under subpara-8
graph (A); 9
‘‘(iii) not later than 120 days after 10
the date on which the Chairperson or Co- 11
Chairpersons submits the report under 12
clause (ii), publish that report in the Fed-13
eral Register, except that the Chairperson 14
or Co-Chairpersons shall redact informa-15
tion from the report that the Chairperson 16
or Co-Chairpersons determines could pose 17
a risk to the national security of the 18
United States by being publicly available; 19
and 20
‘‘(iv) brief the appropriate committees 21
of Congress twice per year. 22
‘‘(6) D
UPLICATION OF EFFORT .—The Chair-23
person or Co-Chairpersons, to the maximum extent 24
practicable, shall carry out the task force in a man-25
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ner that does not duplicate the efforts of other Fed-1
eral departments, agencies, or other entities. 2
‘‘(7) S
UNSET.—The task force shall terminate 3
on the date that is 90 days after the date on which 4
the task force completes the requirements under 5
paragraph (5)(C). 6
‘‘(8) N
O ADDITIONAL FUNDS .—No additional 7
funds are authorized to be appropriated for the pur-8
pose of carrying out this subsection.’’. 9
(b) GAO S
TUDY.— 10
(1) S
TUDY REQUIRED.—The Comptroller Gen-11
eral of the United States shall conduct a study ex-12
amining the Federal and State regulatory landscape 13
related to improving domestic supply chains for crit-14
ical minerals in the United States. 15
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 18 months after 16
the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 17
General of the United States shall submit to the ap-18
propriate committees of Congress a report that de-19
scribes the results of the study under paragraph (1). 20
(3) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 21
(A) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -22
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of 23
Congress’’ means— 24
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(i) the Committees on Homeland Se-1
curity and Governmental Affairs, Energy 2
and Natural Resources, Armed Services, 3
Environment and Public Works, Com-4
merce, Science, and Transportation, Fi-5
nance, and Foreign Relations of the Sen-6
ate; and 7
(ii) the Committees on Oversight and 8
Government Reform, Natural Resources, 9
Armed Services, Ways and Means, Foreign 10
Affairs, and Energy and Commerce of the 11
House of Representatives. 12
(B) C
RITICAL MINERAL.—The term ‘‘crit-13
ical mineral’’ has the meaning given the term 14
‘‘critical material’’ in section 7002(a) of the 15
Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)). 16
Æ
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