Jared Huffman: “We cannot mine our way to security with brute force because China…”

On the recordFebruary 4, 2026

We cannot mine our way to security with brute force because China controls 80 percent of the world's processing power and nearly 90 percent for rare earth elements. If our only solution is to just have more and more mines and to open up this mining free-for-all in the United States, as Republicans seem singularly focused on, we are essentially giving a gift to our largest adversary. Let me tell you what this bill does to address the lack of processing capacity here in the United States--or anywhere outside of China--nothing, absolutely nothing. That is what it has been throughout this Congress from our friends across the aisle--crickets about addressing the real problem when it comes to our competitive threat of China on processing but a rush to open up our public lands and gut our environmental laws for the mining interests.

Said by

Jared Huffman

Democratic · California

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of mining policies and China's dominance in processing rare earth elements.

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Jared Huffman: “We cannot mine our way to security with brute force because China controls 80 percent of the world's processing power…”

Editor's note · Context