Trump Administration Acts to Reduce Dependence on China for Critical Minerals
Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ)
An essential component of America’s national defense engine and competitive advantage over other nations is mineral production. As one of our nation’s largest consumers of metals and minerals, the U.S. Department of Defense uses as much as 750,000 ton of minerals each year.
The U.S. is currently dependent on imports for more than 50 percent of domestic demand for 29 of our 35 critical minerals. China officials also recently threatened to cut off our rare earth mineral supply. This is concerning as China controls 80-90% of the world’s rare earths.
Fortunately, the Trump Administration released a government-wide action plan to curtail our Nation’s dependence on foreign sources of critical minerals.
Members of the Western Caucus from both the House and Senate released statements applauding the release of the action plan.
The Real Russia Collusion: Anti-energy Policies Pushed by Extremist NGOs, Foreign Entities and Resources Left Wing Democrats!
House Natural Resources Dems held a hearing on two land grab bills, both of which are opposed by Chairman Gosar and Members of the Western Caucus.
The first bill, H.R. 1373, would permanently withdraw over 1 million acres of land located in the State of Arizona from the public land, mining, mineral and geothermal leasing laws. Much of this land and most of the mining claims affected are located in Chairman Gosar’s district.
The House Science Committee found Russia funneled cash to extremist organizations to intentionally undermine important American energy projects. It should come as no surprise then, that many of those same groups are strong supporters of H.R. 1373 and are seeking to make the U.S. reliant on foreign countries and unstable American adversaries, namely Russia & Kazakhstan, for 99% of our domestic uranium needs. This anti-mining, anti-American attack aims to prevent development of the highest grade and largest quantity uranium reserves in the country. It would also prevent hundreds of millions of dollars from going to the Arizona State Land Trust and being used for education.
The second bill, H.R. 2181, would permanently withdraw land in New Mexico in order to prevent responsible oil and gas production. The devastation caused to New Mexico would be significant as the four counties that would be negatively impacted provide 31.5% of the revenues for New Mexico’s General Fund, much of which comes from oil and gas production. This bill would kill hundreds of good-paying jobs and infringe on the private property rights of the Navajo allottees