Pat Fallon: “if critical minerals like lithium are essential to our military and to our national security, if that is the case, then…”

“if critical minerals like lithium are essential to our military and to our national security, if that is the case, then why are we still relying on our number one global adversary to supply them? China is mining about 18 percent of all the lithium in the world. With the United States, that percentage is less than 1. As far as refining, China is about 67 percent, some estimates up to 80 percent, where the United States is at 2 percent. For years now, the United States has been overly reliant on the communists in Beijing. It is in America's best national security interest to maintain deterrence against the CCP, not only in the Indo-Pacific, but especially here at home in our supply chains and critical industries. This is why I first introduced H.R. 3872, the MERICA Act, which would allow for the expanded extraction of critical minerals on Federal lands. In fact, we already have some of these critical minerals in abundance. A portion of the district I am privileged to represent falls within what is known as the Smackover Formation, a geological formation that encompasses areas from east Texas all the way to the Florida panhandle. Thanks to a recent U.S. Geological Survey-led study, we know there are an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium reserves in the Smackover Formation, and it is ready for extraction. Lithium is essential for military and defense applications.”