We are very focused on this, as I know the Chair is, and many others.

Good-paying union jobs are on the line.

I think we are going to see more and more--the program is 30 years old, their facilities are 50 years old.

I worked with Senators Moran and Capito just recently to introduce the NOTAM Improvement Act.

I know that Senators Duckworth, Thune, Moran, Fischer, and Kelly, and myself are working on a bill to expand the FAA's workforce development.

It was purely political. The biggest copper nickel find in the world, and this Administration, not only did they pull the leases and ban mining, including taconite mining, what they did was take union jobs away.

The biggest copper nickel find in the world, 95 percent of the nickel, 88 percent of the cobalt, over a third of the copper and other platinum group metals are sitting in a beautiful reserve in northern Minnesota.

We are very focused on this, as I know the Chair is, and many others.

Mining is our past, our present, and our future. This Administration banned mining in northern Minnesota to include taconite mining.

It is unacceptable and immoral that this Administration is using child slave labor to mine the critical minerals to get to the green economy.

We can do both. We have proved we can do both.

What we also don't have is a fair process for permitting mines that is based on science and reason, from my experience.

We have to reform our permitting process in order for us to mine, bring processing and manufacturing back to our country.

Today, I have the pleasure of introducing my friend, Jason George.

The latest example is a decision by the Department of the Interior to ban mining on more than 225,000 acres of northern Minnesota land that contain the vast majority of our mineral resources.

The towns, counties, and cities have their pulse on these issues. And as Mr. George said, they support mining on the Iron Range.

I introduced the Permit for Mining Needs Act, which provides needed updates to our broken permitting process.

If today the Communist country of China and Russia stopped selling us their rare earths and critical minerals, his response, it would be devastating to the United States.