Amodei Reintroduces Strategic & Critical Minerals Bill

Statement

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Mark Amodei (NV-02) today released the following statement after reintroducing the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act.

"Critical and strategic minerals are essential to the technologies that make our daily lives and economy work," said Rep. Amodei. "Unfortunately, duplicative regulations and bureaucratic inefficiencies have forced us to rely on foreign adversaries and competitors for critical minerals, a dependency that threatens the security of our nation and economy. By streamlining the permitting process, this legislation will decrease our dependency on foreign sources of minerals and allow us to leverage our nation's vast mineral resources while paying respect to economic, national security, and environmental concerns. This is a commonsense approach that has already passed the House four times and will not change any environmental regulations, protections, or opportunity for public input. I'm pleased to have several of my House colleagues join me in introducing this bill and look forward to working together to modernize the outdated, job-crushing policies that are hamstringing our economy and jeopardizing our national security."

"The pandemic has made clear the perils associated with relying on foreign sources -- and often geopolitical rivals -- for the raw materials that feed our supply chains," said Rich Nolan, President and CEO, National Mining Association (NMA). "This bill is a key step in reversing our growing minerals import dependence and can also provide high-paying, stable jobs that will boost our country's economic recovery. There is strong bipartisan recognition of the importance of minerals to our energy, national security, and manufacturing supply chains, and it is time for Congress to take action to support domestic mining. By every measure, our future will be more minerals intensive than at any point in history. With commonsense legislation we can ensure that those minerals are sourced in the U.S., in accordance with the strictest environmental protections and labor standards in the world."

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