National Critical Minerals Council Act

New National Critical Minerals Council

If enacted, this bill would create a National Critical Minerals Council in the White House to coordinate federal policy on critical minerals. The Council would be co-chaired by senior White House and Cabinet officials and must name a Chief Minerals Advisor within 180 days. The Advisor and Co-Chairs would deliver a national critical mineral strategy and an implementation plan to Congress within 1 year and then brief Congress annually. The Council would include heads or designees from many agencies (for example, Defense, Energy, Commerce, Interior, EPA, Treasury, OMB, NEC, NSC, USTR, CFIUS, DFC, and EXIM). The Council would track investments worldwide (including by the People’s Republic of China), create a public project dashboard and a central funding-opportunity platform, and coordinate permitting, procurement, workforce, R&D, and financing policy. The bill would also define “critical mineral project” and set two ways a school can qualify as a “mining school,” including an alternative that uses a State mining GDP threshold of $2 billion for 2021.