Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOYLE of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill.

This administration's corruption playbook is impacting industries across the board and raising costs for working families like the ones I represent. Their next target is the mining industry.

Representative Grijalva offered an amendment that would require the Secretary to ensure there is meaningful and robust Tribal consultation for any mining project to be eligible to be covered under FAST-41. This amendment was not accepted.

I represent four of Oregon's nine Tribal nations and one-third of the members of two others. Tribal consultation is critical to my district and to our State.

We tried to make this bill better and protect Tribal consultation, but Republicans voted against it. Too often, essential Tribal consultation and community engagement are treated as a box-checking exercise. Consultation is a process, not an event, and it is our trust responsibility to ensure this happens.

Tribes deserve a real say in mining projects that could forever alter and destroy the lands they have stewarded since time immemorial.

This legislation does not make our supply chains more secure or even ensure that more of the domestic critical minerals that we need will get mined for American workers.

This issue affects mine and Representative Huffman's district in that there is a foreign company that is looking to mine low-value minerals that will destroy drinking water, fish habitat, and recreational opportunities on the Smith River.

We do not need to be a cheap date for foreign entities so the President and his family and his donors can get rich off the companies that they are personally invested in. That is not in the best interests of Americans or American workers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and work on something better for the American people and the resources that we depend on.

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