[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 88 (Thursday, May 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3260-S3261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1827. Mr. BOOKER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 1502 proposed by Mr. Schumer to the bill S. 1260, to 
establish a new Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the 
National Science Foundation, to establish a regional technology hub 
program, to require a strategy and report on economic security, 
science, research, innovation, manufacturing, and job creation, to 
establish a critical supply chain resiliency program, and for other 
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

        At the end of part II of subtitle A of title I of division 
     D, add the following:

     SEC. 4128. SECURING UNITED STATES SUPPLY CHAINS OF STRATEGIC 
                   METALS AND MINERALS.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) Underpinned by huge demand from the battery sector, 
     competition for control over global cobalt feedstock supply 
     chains has intensified in recent years. The People's Republic 
     of China's increasing control over cobalt (and other mineral) 
     resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (in this 
     section referred to as the ``DRC'') could pose a threat to 
     United States entities seeking to secure supply chains for 
     these minerals. The DRC hosts more than 51 percent of the 
     global cobalt reserves and produces nearly 70 percent of the 
     total cobalt feedstock globally.
       (2) In early January 2021, the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China announced it would cancel an estimated 
     $28,000,000 of loans to the DRC, repayment of which were due 
     by the end of 2020, and provide $17,000,000 in other 
     financial support to help the DRC overcome the crisis caused 
     by the COVID-19 pandemic. During a visit to the DRC, Chinese 
     Foreign Minister Wang Yi signed an memorandum of 
     understanding with the DRC on cooperation under the Belt and 
     Road Initiative, with the DRC now becoming the People's 
     Republic of China's 45th partner under that Initiative in 
     Africa. Prior to the announcement, Chinese entities already 
     controlled more than 40 percent of the cobalt mining capacity 
     in the DRC as a result of decades-long investment and 
     development in the DRC, with several resource-for-
     infrastructure deals having been signed and implemented since 
     the 1990s.
       (3) The People's Republic of China is also the world's 
     leading importer of copper, iron ore, chromium, manganese, 
     tantalum, niobium, platinum-group metals, and lithium. Long-
     term contracts have been established for some imports, but 
     for others, Chinese entities have made equity investments or 
     entered joint ventures in order to secure needed resources.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the Sense of Congress that--
       (1) the current United States mineral policy of promoting 
     an adequate, stable, and reliable supply of materials for 
     United States national security, economic well-being, and 
     industrial production is inadequate to ensure that United 
     States entities have a secure supply chain for certain 
     strategic metals and minerals;
       (2) United States mineral policy emphasizes developing 
     domestic supplies of critical materials and encourages the 
     private sector in the United States to produce and process 
     those materials, but some raw materials do not exist in 
     economic quantities in the United States, and processing, 
     manufacturing, and other downstream ventures in the United 
     States may not be cost competitive with facilities in other 
     regions of the world;
       (3) to counter Chinese dominance in the market for those 
     minerals, the United States Government should--
       (A) support more responsible trade missions and United 
     States commercial delegations to mineral-producing countries 
     and assist smaller and less-developed countries to improve 
     the transparency of their minerals trade, including strong 
     support for implementation of the Extractive Industries 
     Transparency Initiative, beneficial ownership transparency, 
     and the formalization of the artisanal mining sector;
       (B) the Department of Commerce should work with the 
     Department of the Treasury and the Department of State to 
     leverage resources to investigate networks of corrupt Chinese 
     practices in the DRC and elsewhere and coordinate with the 
     Department of

[[Page S3261]]

     Labor and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that 
     minerals supply chains do not include products benefitting 
     from forced and child labor;
       (C) the Department of Commerce, in cooperation with other 
     United States Government agencies, should facilitate 
     accessible de-risking for United States entities seeking to 
     invest in countries such as the DRC; and
       (D) the Department of State, in cooperation with other 
     United States Government agencies, should provide to Congress 
     an annual report on corruption in the cobalt sector in the 
     DRC.
       (c) Statement of Policy.--It shall be the policy of the 
     United States--
       (1) to promote an adequate, stable, transparent, and 
     reliable supply of materials for United States national 
     security, economic well-being, and industrial production, 
     including by developing international supply chain options 
     that do not rely primarily or exclusively on the domestic 
     private sector or corrupt sources abroad to produce and 
     process those materials;
       (2) to counter Chinese dominance in the production of 
     certain metals and minerals, including cobalt, by 
     facilitating the competitiveness of United States entities to 
     work in markets currently dominated by the People's Republic 
     of China; and
       (3) to promote a responsible minerals supply chain that 
     counters corruption by the People's Republic of China and all 
     actors and, to that end, the Department of the Treasury 
     should focus on tools, including network sanctions, anti-
     money laundering measures, and other actions to counter 
     kleptocratic and illicit actors in global mineral supply 
     chains.
                                 ______