Critical Mineral Consistency Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman for yielding me time and for clarifying a series of those points that were expressed by our friends on the other side of the aisle that he clarified so well.

I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 8446, the Critical Mineral Consistency Act. This bill, which passed with bipartisan support through the House Committee on Natural Resources and was recently introduced in the Senate, also with bipartisan co-leads, would require the U.S. Geological Survey to incorporate critical materials identified by the Department of Energy into the USGS critical minerals list.

Under the Energy Act of 2020, items appearing on the USGS critical minerals list are automatically included on the DOE's Critical Materials List. However, items on the DOE list are not reciprocated to the USGS list. This discrepancy is confusing to mineral producers and makes it unclear which minerals are critical to the United States' mission.

In addition to creating unnecessary confusion, the disconnect between the two lists puts our domestic supply chain at risk. Other countries like China and Peru have specifically articulated and invested in the minerals they deem critical. Meanwhile, here in the United States, several minerals are indisputably essential to our national security and clean energy economy, such as copper, electrical steel, flourine, silicon, and silicon carbide. They are all listed as critical materials and not critical minerals, making them ineligible for expedited permitting processes and other benefits.

This legislation would create some consistency within our agencies and signal to the world that we are taking seriously the importance of domestic production for our critical minerals like copper.

In Arizona, copper is one of the State's five Cs, alongside climate, cattle, cotton, and citrus. Copper mining is embedded in our State's history, and today Arizona remains a leader in copper production, providing the Nation and the world with the copper it needs to operate.

Despite Arizona being a leader in copper production, dozens of potential copper mines in America remain untapped due to the burdensome regulations by the Federal Government. Handicapping our own domestic mineral production and relying on imports from foreign countries not only harms our national security and economy but it also hurts the environment because we know when we mine in America, we do it safer and we do it cleaner than just about anywhere else in the world.

According to various reports, the world is expected to need around 50 million metric tons of copper annually by 2035 due to the growing energy demands. Another recent study found that without increased domestic production, the U.S. will be 60 percent reliant on imports of copper by 2035. That is alarming.

In a world where foreign wars have created massive instability in the global economy, we should not be reliant on other countries for critical minerals that are used in everything from military vehicles to our electrical grid infrastructure.

It is high time we take tangible steps to onshore mineral production, and this legislation does just that.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.

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