Bipartisan bill would direct U.S. military to identify ways of reducing mineral dependence on foreign adversaries

Concerned about the U.S. need for critical minerals and the domination of those minerals by adversarial nations, three U.S. senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that would direct the Department of Defense (DoD) to find ways to reduce its foreign mineral dependence.

Currently, China controls a large portion of the world’s critical mineral mining and processing. That means, even as the United States gets into increasingly large verbal and other spats with the Asian nation, it is reliant on China for key minerals to manufacture both military equipment and other products key to national security and economic growth.

“The Department of Defense should not be dependent on foreign adversaries like China for resources needed to make equipment and ammunition that are essential to our combat readiness and warfare capabilities,” U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “This bipartisan effort will help protect our national and economic security, strengthen our critical mineral supply chains, and ensure our military can procure the tools they need to defend our country.”

He was joined in this effort by U.S. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), who introduced a similar bill last Congress.

Under this iteration, the DoD would need a strategy to create supply chains not reliant on the mining or processing of critical minerals in or by China, Russia or other competitors or adversaries by 2035. Accordingly, the department would also need to identify and recommend changes to acquisition law, regulations and policies that would assist this independence. DoD would also have to evaluate the efficacy of using Defense Production Act authorities to build supply chains and processing capacity for critical minerals, while engaging with allies and partners to reduce that dependence on competitors abroad.

“China’s rise in power is aided by its monopolization of raw materials and we’re putting our national security and economic vitality at risk by relying on countries like China for critical minerals,” Romney said. “The U.S. and our allies must rapidly and strategically invest in the mining and processing of critical minerals that are needed to meet current security challenges.”

Last session’s version of the bill was referred to the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, but failed to advance further.