[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 981 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 981

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a global rare earth 
              element assessment, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 6, 2013

  Mr. Johnson of Georgia (for himself and Mr. Markey) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a global rare earth 
              element assessment, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Resource Assessment of Rare Earths 
Act of 2013'' or the ``RARE Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. GLOBAL RARE EARTH ELEMENT RESOURCE ASSESSMENT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director 
of the United States Geological Survey and in coordination with the 
heads of national geological surveys where available, shall submit to 
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a 
comprehensive report on global rare earth element resources and 
potential future global supply. Such report shall use the best 
available data and include--
            (1) the identity and quantity of individual rare earth 
        elements in known deposits;
            (2) models demonstrating the geologic conditions necessary 
        for the formation, and the variability in composition, of the 
        most significant deposits of rare earth elements;
            (3) regional assessments of the likelihood of occurrence of 
        undiscovered deposits and an estimate of the quantity of rare 
        earth elements thought to be present;
            (4) recommendations, developed in consultation with other 
        appropriate agencies, on areas of need for future geologic 
        research related to--
                    (A) rare earth elements; and
                    (B) other minerals that are critical based on the 
                impact of a potential supply restriction and the 
                likelihood of a supply restriction; and
            (5) analysis, developed with participation by the National 
        Minerals Information Center and in consultation with 
        appropriate agencies, of the rare earth elements supply chain 
        and associated processes and products, including mining, 
        processing, separation, metal production, alloy production, and 
        manufacturing of products sold to end users.
    (b) Rare Earth Element.--In this section the term ``rare earth 
element'' means--
            (1) any element in the lanthanides group of elements, which 
        consists of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, 
        promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, 
        dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium;
            (2) yttrium; and
            (3) scandium.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary of the Interior to carry out this section 
$10,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2014 through 2016.
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