Jared Huffman: “I oppose H.R. 4090 for all the reasons that have been discussed. This is a bill that directs the administration to…”

“I oppose H.R. 4090 for all the reasons that have been discussed. This is a bill that directs the administration to prioritize and approve mines, any mines that it wants, even ones owned by foreign adversaries, giving them an expedited path to mine our publicly owned minerals and to export them, usually straight to China. The Republicans have named it the Critical Mineral Dominance Act, but they forgot to make sure that it was America that would benefit. Democrats have tried again and again to add commonsense guardrails to stop foreign adversaries from benefiting from our minerals. Republicans have repeatedly blocked these efforts with creative new excuses every time. Let's drop the facade. This bill is not about American mineral dominance. It is not about critical minerals, either, because nothing in this bill limits the special treatment to strategically important minerals. Nothing in this bill would stop the administration from declaring a gold mine a priority and fast-tracking it. We have already seen them give millions of taxpayer dollars away to a gold mine in Nevada. Gold has never been critical, except when it comes to, I guess, decorating the White House. This bill is an industry giveaway, pure and simple, and it leaves Americans footing the bill.”