[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4866 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4866
To reestablish a competitive domestic rare earths minerals production
industry; a domestic rare earth processing, refining, purification, and
metals production industry; a domestic rare earth metals alloying
industry; and a domestic rare earth based magnet production industry
and supply chain in the United States.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 17, 2010
Mr. Coffman of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the
Committees on Ways and Means and Financial Services, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To reestablish a competitive domestic rare earths minerals production
industry; a domestic rare earth processing, refining, purification, and
metals production industry; a domestic rare earth metals alloying
industry; and a domestic rare earth based magnet production industry
and supply chain in the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Rare Earths Supply-Chain Technology
and Resources Transformation Act of 2010'' or the ``RESTART Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that:
(1) Many modern defense technologies such as radar and
sonar systems, precision-guided weapons, cruise missiles, and
lasers cannot be built, as designed and specified, without the
use of rare earth elements (``REEs'') and materials produced
from them.
(2) Significant quantities of REE are used in the
production of renewable energy technologies, including advanced
automotive propulsion batteries, electric motors, high-
efficiency light bulbs, solar panels, and wind turbines. These
technologies are used to advance the United States energy
policy of reducing dependence on foreign oil and decreasing
greenhouse gas emissions through expansion of renewable sources
of energy.
(3) Though the United States owns at least 15 percent of
the world's REEs reserves, it now depends nearly 100 percent
upon imports for rare earth elements, oxides, and alloys
because there are virtually no active REE producers in the
United States. More than 97 percent of all REEs for world
consumption are produced in China.
(4) China's ability--and willingness--to export REEs is
eroding due to its growing domestic demand, its enforcement of
environmental law on current producers, and its mandate to
consolidate the industry by decreasing its number of mining
permits. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology draft rare earths plan for 2009 to 2015 proposes an
immediate ban on the export of dysprosium, terbium, thulium,
lutetium and yttrium, the ``heavy'' REE and a restriction on
the exports of all the other, light, rare earth metals to a
level well below that of Japan's 2008 demand alone.
(5) Furthermore, the United States has no active heavy
group rare earth production capabilities or refining
capabilities for heavy rare earth elements. Thus, should the
United States begin to mine its heavy rare earth oxides, it
would still be dependent on overseas refineries for further
elemental and alloy processing. Nor does the United States
currently maintain a ``strategic reserve'' of rare earth
compounds, metals or alloys.
(6) REEs should qualify as materials either strategic or
critical to national security. The United States Government
should take measures to reintroduce a globally competitive
domestic strategic materials industry that is self-sufficient
in the United States domestic market with multiple sources of
mining, processing, alloying and manufacturing.
(7) This self-sufficiency requires an uninterrupted supply
of strategic materials critical to national security and
innovative commercial product development, including rare earth
materials, to support the defense supply chain.
(8) The United States currently cannot reclaim valuable
rare earth resources and permanent magnets from scrapped
military or consumer products, industrial materials or
equipment, which allows entities in overseas nations to
identify and recover such materials for resale to United States
manufacturers at considerable cost.
(9) There is an urgent need to identify the current global
market situation regarding rare earth materials, the strategic
value placed on them by foreign nations including China, and
the Department of Defense's and domestic manufacturing
industry's supply-chain vulnerability related to rare earths
and end items containing rare earths such as neodymium iron
boron and other specialty magnets, and rare earth ``doped''
lasers.
(10) It is the policy of the United States to take any and
all actions necessary to ensure the reintroduction of a
competitive domestic rare earth supply chain, to include the
reintroduction of the capacity to conduct mining, refining/
processing, alloying and manufacturing operations using
domestic suppliers to provide a secure source of rare earth
materials as a vital component of national security and
economic policy.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH EXECUTIVE AGENTS FOR RARE EARTH
RELATED MATTERS.
No later than 30 days after the enactment of this Act--
(1) the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior,
and State shall appoint an Executive Agent, at the Assistant
Secretary level of each affected agency, to serve as a
representative on an interagency working group for the purposes
of reestablishing a competitive domestic rare earth supply
chain; and
(2) the United States Trade Representative and the Office
of Science and Technology Policy shall appoint representation
to the interagency working group in paragraph (1) above.
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH A BASELINE FOR RARE EARTH MATERIAL
SUPPLY-CHAIN VULNERABILITY.
No later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, the
Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, and State shall
undertake an assessment of the rare earth supply chain and determine
which rare earth elements are critical to national and economic
security and submit the findings of the review to Congress. Such
assessment shall be in coordination with the United States Trade
Representative and the Executive Office of the President's Office of
Science and Technology Policy.
SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL STOCKPILE FOR RARE EARTH
MATERIALS.
(a) In accordance with 50 U.S.C. 98 et seq., the Secretary of
Defense shall commence the procurement of rare earth materials
designated as ``critical'' in section 4 of this Act and place such rare
earth materials in the national stockpile within one year after
enactment of this Act.
(b) The Defense Logistics Agency, Defense National Stockpile
Center, shall serve as Administrator of the rare earth stockpile and
shall issue an annual report to Congress describing which rare earth
materials shall be added to or subtracted from the stockpile.
(c) In accordance with section 98h-6 of title 50, United States
Code, the Administrator shall purchase, or make a commitment to
purchase, rare earth materials or for the processing or refining of
rare earth materials, to support national defense and the economic
needs of the United States.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for a period of
five years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator
shall be authorized to purchase necessary rare earth materials from the
People's Republic of China, if required to meet national security and
economic needs of the United States.
(e) Upon the joint determination of the Secretaries of Commerce,
Defense, Energy, Interior, and State, in coordination with the United
States Trade Representative and the Executive Office of the President's
Office of Science and Technology Policy, that rare earth materials are
no longer critical to supporting national defense or the economic well-
being of the United States, the requirement to stockpile rare earth
materials shall terminate by issuing a report of such determination to
Congress. Such report shall be submitted to Congress no earlier than
April 1, 2015.
SEC. 6. ESTABLISHMENT OF FAIR MARKET CONDITIONS FOR THE REESTABLISHMENT
OF A DOMESTIC RARE EARTH SUPPLY CHAIN.
(a) Not later than 30 days after the enactment of the Act, the
United States Trade Representative shall initiate a comprehensive
review of international trade practices in the rare earth materials
market. Such review shall include actions by foreign producers of rare
earth elements, rare earth metals, rare earth alloys and components
used in the defense or energy markets containing rare earth elements,
as it relates to dumping, export quotas and other relevant mechanisms
used to manipulate the rare earth market.
(b) Upon completion of the review, the United States Trade
Representative shall--
(1) initiate an action before the World Trade Organization;
or
(2) issue a report to Congress describing the results of
the comprehensive review and why it was determined that
international markets are free from market manipulation such as
dumping or export quotas.
SEC. 7. CONSIDERATION OF LOAN GUARANTEES FOR RARE EARTH SUPPLY-CHAIN
DEVELOPMENT.
Not later than 90 days after the enactment of the Act--
(1) the Secretaries of Commerce, Interior, and State shall
issue a report to industry describing mechanisms for obtaining
current and future year government loan guarantees to
reestablish a domestic rare earth supply chain;
(2) the Secretary of Defense shall issue guidance for the
rare earth industry related to obtaining loan guarantees under
50 U.S.C. 98 and any other available mechanism for obtaining
loan guarantees to support the reestablishment of mining,
refining, alloying and manufacturing operations in the United
States that will support the domestic defense supply chain; and
(3) the Secretary of Energy shall issue guidance for the
rare earth industry related to obtaining loan guarantees under
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy sponsored programs and any
other available mechanism for obtaining loan guarantees to
support the reestablishment of mining, refining, alloying and
manufacturing operations in the United States that will support
the domestic supply chain.
SEC. 8. DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT PRIORITY FOR RARE EARTH SUPPLY-CHAIN
DEVELOPMENT.
(a) It is the sense of Congress that the urgent need to reintroduce
a domestic rare earth supply chain warrants a prioritization of such
Defense Production Act projects. The United States faces a shortage of
key materials that form the backbone of both the defense and energy
supply chains.
(b) Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary of Defense shall issue a report describing past, current and
future Defense Production Act projects to address the domestic rare
earth supply chain. If no rare earth supply-chain Defense Production
Act projects are in process or planned, the report shall justify the
lack of action to support establishment of domestic rare earth supply-
chain initiatives, particularly those to establish domestic
manufacturing capability in critical segments of the rare earth market.
SEC. 9. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TO SUPPORT THE DOMESTIC RARE EARTH
SUPPLY CHAIN.
It is the sense of Congress that, in order to reestablish the
United States as the preeminent supplier of rare earth materials,
components and associated technologies, there is a pressing need to
support innovation, training and workforce development of the rare
earth supply chain. Therefore, base budget funding should be provided
by the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, Energy, and Interior to fund
academic institutions, Government laboratories, corporate research and
development, not-for-profit research and development, and industry
associations.
SEC. 10. RESTRICTIONS.
(a) Limitation on Divestment of Facilities Created.--No recipient
of United States Government appropriated funds, for the purposes of
supporting the reestablishment of a domestic rare earth supply chain,
may divest resources funded, in whole or in part, to any foreign-owned
or controlled entity without the concurrence of the Secretaries of
Energy, Commerce, and Defense.
(b) Enhancing National Security.--Any recipient of United States
Government appropriated funds obtained in connection with the
reestablishment of a domestic rare earth supply chain shall be subject
to the restrictions of 10 U.S.C. 2538. In order to ensure the
availability of rare earth materials for Department of Defense needs,
this obligation extends to all materials sold by such recipients in the
commercial marketplace.
SEC. 11. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Rare earth.--The term ``rare earth'' means the chemical
elements, all metals, beginning with lanthanum, atomic number
57, and including all of the natural chemical elements in the
periodic table following lanthanum up to and including
lutetium, element number 71. The definition shall further
include the elements yttrium and scandium, which are usually
found with the rare earth elements in nature.
(2) Refine.--The reestablishment of a domestic rare earth
element refinery capabilities within the United States whereby
rare earths, once extracted from rock, are separated and
purified to commercial grades of oxides or other salts such as
oxalates or chlorides.
(3) Process.--The support of heavy rare earth processing
and production facilities capable of converting rare earth
oxides into usable rare earth metals and specialty alloys and
powders for domestic magnet and other manufacturing within the
United States.
(4) Produce.--The advancement of domestic manufacturing
efforts of U.S. magnet producers and other domestic innovation
industries that rely on rare earth materials.
(5) Recycle.--The establishment of an initiative to recycle
and strip used consumer products, and used or obsolete
declassified military products, of rare earth elements and
strategic magnets within the United States for eventual reuse
by domestic manufacturers.
(6) Stockpile.--The creation and maintenance of a
``strategic reserve'' of rare earth oxides, and storable forms
of rare earth elements, and alloys for national defense
purposes.
(7) Alloy and alloying.--An alloy is a partial or complete
solid solution of one or more elements in a metallic matrix.
Alloying is the process of melting of metals to create the
metallic matrix.
(8) Sintering.--Sintering is a method for making objects
from powder, by heating the material in a sintering furnace
below its melting point (solid state sintering) until its
particles adhere to each other.
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