{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://zinke.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-zinke-grills-bidens-interior-secretary-haaland", "Congressman Zinke Grills Biden\u2019s Interior Secretary Haaland", "2023-03-28", "2023", "2023-03", "Republican", "House", "MT", "Ryan K. Zinke", "Z000018", "zinke.house.gov", "zinke", "https://zinke.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Congressman Zinke Grills Biden\u2019s Interior Secretary Haaland for Propping up China for Critical Minerals\n\n(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Today, Western Montana Congressman and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke questioned President Biden\u2019s current Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland on her budget request for FY24 at the House Appropriations Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee. At the hearing, Congressman Zinke grilled Secretary Haaland on the administration\u2019s policy to shut down mining in the United States, while propping up China for critical minerals.\n\nA 2017 report by the U.S. Geological Survey found the U.S. is dependent on China and Russia for 23 of the minerals that are most-needed to sustain our national defense and economy and are used in manufacturing everything from batteries and computer chips to equipment used by our military. The report shows a troubling trend of foreign dependency.\n\nSecretary Haaland was unable to answer basic questions about critical mineral deposits, dependency and her own actions to kill American mineral production.\n\nWatch Rep. Zinke\u2019s questioning from the hearing here.\n\nZINKE: Are you aware that China produces more emissions than any other country on the planet?\n\nHAALAND: I probably read that somewhere.\n\nZINKE: Are you aware that China produces 90% of plastic from four rivers?\n\nHAALAND: I\u2019ll take that to be true.\n\nZINKE: Are you aware that by multiple studies, that in order to satisfy the present requirement of EV and critical minerals, it would take an increase of 2,000% in minerals needed in the next twenty years?\n\nHAALAND: Thank you for that information.\n\nZINKE: Are you aware that Northern Minnesota is home to those critical minerals?\n\nHAALAND: I am not sure.\n\nZINKE: Can you pick any place in the United States that you\u2019ve identified to fast-track so we are not vulnerable to China and Russia both In defense and EV?\n\nHAALAND: We are working on identifying those critical minerals.\n\nZINKE: You would agree that not having the critical minerals identified and produced in this country is a security problem and prevents us from moving ahead on multiple issues, and makes us vulnerable to China?\n\nHAALAND: Energy independence is a priority to President Biden.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T23:30:02Z"]], "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://zinke.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-zinke-grills-bidens-interior-secretary-haaland"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8332559373229742, "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"}