[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7636 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7636

 To support international governance of seafloor resource exploration 
  and responsible polymetallic nodule collection by allied partners, 
strengthen domestic processing and refining capabilities, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2024

      Mrs. Miller of West Virginia (for herself and Mr. Joyce of 
Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on 
 Ways and Means, and Foreign Affairs, 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 support international governance of seafloor resource exploration 
  and responsible polymetallic nodule collection by allied partners, 
strengthen domestic processing and refining capabilities, 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 ``Responsible Use of Seafloor 
Resources Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. SEAFLOOR RESOURCE EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States is falling behind in competitiveness 
        within supply chains for critical defense and clean energy 
        technologies and therefore must develop an alternative supply 
        of critical minerals to lessen dependance on foreign 
        adversaries.
            (2) Establishing a secure and resilient critical mineral 
        supply chain is a matter of national security.
            (3) China controls roughly 60 percent of the global 
        critical mineral production and over 85 percent of the world's 
        refining capacity.
            (4) This has been achieved by early and aggressive 
        investment in mining and processing operations across South 
        America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
            (5) Recognizing the potential of marine resources to 
        further its position, China is increasing its investment in 
        deep-sea mining, holding the most exploration contracts of any 
        country.
            (6) Investing in alternatives serving to diversify supply 
        such as the collection of seafloor nodules is integral to 
        ensuring the United States does not continue its over-
        dependence on China and other adversarial nations.
            (7) As mining has been largely outsourced to other parts of 
        the world, China has become the top producer of 30 of the 50 
        U.S. critical minerals. With this shift, the governance of 
        environmental and social impacts of mining and processing 
        operations is largely out of the control of the United States.
            (8) Prioritizing supply with existing or potential for 
        transparent, accountable, and responsible sourcing is integral 
        to ensuring the United States does not continue to export 
        adverse environmental and social (ESG) impacts of mining and 
        processing abroad in countries that are apathetic or less 
        equipped to abide by internationally accepted standards.
            (9) Investing in the development of mineral resources and 
        processing infrastructure quantitatively proven to reduce ESG 
        impacts, such as seafloor nodules, is integral to ensuring the 
        raw materials that underpin our domestic industrial base and 
        transition to clean energy do not have adverse planetary 
        impacts.
            (10) Developing U.S. partnerships to secure seafloor 
        resources and domestic capabilities to process these materials 
        is in the nation's economic, environmental and security 
        interests.
    (b) In General.--The President shall direct the Secretary of State, 
the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense, and the 
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy--
            (1) together with Federal interagency efforts, to provide 
        financial, diplomatic, or other forms of support for seafloor 
        nodule collection, processing, and refining where upstream 
        sourcing is compliant with regulations; and
            (2) to coordinate and expedite across Federal agencies the 
        development of infrastructure to process and refine seafloor 
        nodules within the United States.
    (c) Reports.--
            (1) Office of science and technology policy.--The Director 
        of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall annually 
        submit to the President and Congress a report including the 
        following:
                    (A) A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 
                benefits to the United States to importing seafloor 
                nodules and processing and refining such seafloor 
                nodules domestically, including benefits related to--
                            (i) foreign relations;
                            (ii) research and technology development;
                            (iii) environmental and social impact 
                        monitoring;
                            (iv) utilization of existing industrial 
                        base, including offshore infrastructure and 
                        processing consumables;
                            (v) job creation; and
                            (vi) market impact to various industries, 
                        including battery and electric vehicle 
                        production.
                    (B) A quantitative analysis comparing the lifecycle 
                environmental and social effects of sourcing a 
                benchmark amount of critical minerals from seafloor 
                nodules to the environmental and social effects of 
                sourcing such amount of critical minerals from land-
                based projects, based on the most recent data available 
                from both public and private sources, including 
                consideration of--
                            (i) benefit sharing and capacity building;
                            (ii) human health and labor conditions;
                            (iii) revenue streams; and
                            (iv) local ecosystem impacts and the 
                        ability to utilize impact mitigation 
                        hierarchies, including avoidance, minimization, 
                        rehabilitation, and offsets.
                    (C) An analysis of the applicability of seafloor 
                nodule collection and data acquisition technologies 
                used in the deep-sea environment for the purpose of 
                initiatives carried out by the United States, including 
                the mapping of technologies used and data acquired in 
                the deep-sea environment in international waters and 
                mapping, exploring, and characterizing minerals in the 
                exclusive economic zone of the United States.
            (2) Department of commerce.--The Secretary of Commerce 
        shall submit to the President and Congress a report that 
        includes a description of Federal legislation and documents 
        that are relevant to the importation and processing of seafloor 
        nodules and seafloor nodule-derived products sourced from 
        outside the exclusive economic zone of the United States by 
        individuals who are not United States citizens, including--
                    (A) the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (30 
                U.S.C. 1401 note et seq.); and
                    (B) the internal advice decision letter of the 
                United States Customs and Border Protection regarding 
                the determination of the origination, tariff, and 
                Harmonized Tariff System classification of seafloor 
                nodules and seafloor nodule-derived products.
    (d) Critical Mineral Defined.--In this section, the term ``critical 
mineral'' has the meaning given the term in section 7002(a)(3) of the 
Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)(3)).
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