Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1501, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act, which will ensure domestic mining projects are able to enjoy the benefits of title 41 of the bipartisan and wildly successful FAST Act.
I thank my colleague Representative Shreve for his leadership in bringing this legislation forward.
The FAST Act has been used to permit and build countless projects that are necessary for our country's national and economic security, and under the Trump administration, mining projects have been eligible and have advanced.
By codifying mining and mineral processing projects, we will ensure that these important projects are able to enjoy this benefit, no matter if we have a pro-mining President like President Trump in office or an anti-mining President like President Biden in office.
My district in northern Minnesota is home to proposed projects like the NewRange Copper Nickel project, which is enjoying the benefits of FAST-41 as a transparency list project as they pursue their section 404 permit under the Clean Water Act, a permit that was pulled by the previous administration for purely political reasons.
Thanks to FAST-41, I am confident NewRange won't fall through the cracks and will be granted their permit when they meet and exceed all our strict environmental standards.
This is a great benefit more for not only northern Minnesota but a benefit for our entire Nation and our strategic mineral national security.
By codifying mining and mineral processing projects' eligibility into law, NewRange and other important projects won't have to worry about the rug being pulled out from them again the next time we see a change in administrations.
It will further give a strong signal to the private sector that the Federal Government is committed to securing our mineral security and mineral independence, no matter who is in the White House.
Representative Shreve's legislation will send a strong signal: We are ready to mine here in the United States once again.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source