{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-romney-introduce-bill-to-secure-us-critical-mineral-independence-from-china", "Sullivan, Romney Introduce Bill to Secure U.S. Critical Mineral Independence from China", "2022-12-07", "2022", "2022-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) today introduced the Critical Mineral Independence Act of 2022, legislation to help ensure that the U.S. secures critical mineral independence from China. The U.S. cannot afford to allow the critical minerals used by the Department of Defense (DoD) to be mined or processed in adversarial countries, and it must urgently invest and build its capabilities to achieve critical mineral independence in coordination with allies.\n\n\u201cWe cannot continue to be dependent on China for critical minerals\u2014resources that are crucial to our economy, and which we have in abundance in the U.S., particularly in Alaska like the significant copper and zinc resources in the Ambler Mining District that the Biden administration\u2014remarkably\u2014continues to delay,\u201d Senator Sullivan said. \u201cIf we are going to build out and support our domestic clean energy industries and national security initiatives, we need to get serious about a strategy for unleashing America\u2019s national supply chains and processing capabilities. In doing so, we will create thousands of good-paying jobs, protect our national security interests, deny economic support for violators of basic human rights and build out America\u2019s all-of-the-above energy sector.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe put our national security and economic vitality at risk when we rely on countries like China for critical minerals,\u201d Senator Romney said. \u201cRapid, strategic investments by the U.S. and its allies in the mining and processing of critical minerals are needed to meet the security challenges we face today. These mining and processing investments will also help bolster our domestic critical mineral capabilities, where minerals like copper, lithium, and cobalt are essential components in everything from batteries and computers to electric vehicles and satellites. China\u2019s rise in power is aided by its monopolization of raw materials and the U.S. must secure critical mineral independence to bolster our security.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nChina controls much of the world\u2019s critical mineral mining and processing. The DoD must work with U.S. allies immediately to have sufficient independence of critical minerals to successfully implement the National Defense Strategy. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) gives a boost to funding for critical mineral mining and processing, and the Romney/Sullivan bill strengthens the provisions of that funding to meet the threats of this decade.\n\nRomney and Sullivan\u2019s Critical Mineral Independence Act of 2022:\n\nDirects the expansion of critical mineral mining and processing in the U.S. and allied countries to achieve critical mineral supply chain independence for the Department of Defense by 2027.\n\nRequires the director of the Defense Logistics Agency to develop a strategy to expedite critical mineral mining and processing, and then requires the implementation of that strategy.\n\nAuthorizes the use of the underlying $1 billion in the NDAA to execute the procurement strategy.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-romney-introduce-bill-to-secure-us-critical-mineral-independence-from-china"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1500280126929283, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}