PROTECTING DOMESTIC MINING ACT OF 2025

On 2026-09-02, Representative Mike Kennedy (R-UT-3) delivered a floor speech titled "PROTECTING DOMESTIC MINING ACT OF 2025" in the House.

PROTECTING DOMESTIC MINING ACT OF 2025

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 139 (Wednesday, September 2, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 139 (Wednesday, September 2, 2026)] [House] [Pages H5452-H5459] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] {time} 1340 PROTECTING DOMESTIC MINING ACT OF 2025 Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1499, I call up the bill (H.R. 1501) to amend the FAST Act to include certain mineral production activities as a covered project, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1499, the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Natural Resources printed in the bill is adopted, and the bill, as amended, is considered read. The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows: H.R. 1501 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 ``Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025''. SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF COVERED PROJECT. Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m(6)(A)) is amended by inserting ``mining, mineral processing,'' before ``or any other sector''. SEC. 3. PROHIBITION AGAINST FINALIZING, IMPLEMENTING, OR ENFORCING PROPOSED RULE RELATED TO SCOPE OF MINING UNDER FAST ACT. The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council may not finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the proposed rule titled ``Revising Scope of the Mining Sector of Projects That Are Eligible for Coverage Under Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act'' (88 Fed. Reg. 65350; September 22, 2023). The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill, as amended, shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources or their respective designees. The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman) each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman). General Leave Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 1501. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Arkansas? There was no objection. Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1501, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025, which extends FAST-41 eligibility to mining and mineral processing projects. I thank my colleague Representative Jefferson Shreve for introducing this important piece of legislation, which will bring much-needed efficiency and transparency to our domestic mining permitting process. On average, it takes 19 years to bring a new mine into operation in the United States. Permitting delays drive up costs, halt economic growth, stifle innovation, and increase our reliance on foreign adversaries. Since taking office, President Trump has moved swiftly to set America on a path to mineral dominance. President Trump's March 2025 Executive Order 14241 entitled: ``Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production'' identified mining as a priority for national security and directed the Permitting Council to publish additional mining projects to its FAST-41 dashboard. Under this administration, the Permitting Council has published 60 additional mining projects on the FAST-41 dashboard. Mr. Speaker, 22 mining projects and counting have completed the Federal permitting process under the dashboard. I will say, yesterday that was 21. They just completed another project this morning. This impressive record stands in stark contrast to the Biden administration, which over 4 years, did not complete a single Federal permitting process for a mining project through FAST-41. Permitting efficiency is crucial to building critical infrastructure projects. Extending FAST-41 eligibility to mining projects would help meet our Nation's increased demand for energy and mineral resources, and it would provide greater certainty for the domestic mining industry. It is not enough to just mine here at home. Our country also needs mineral processing capabilities to secure our domestic mineral supply chain. Crucially, this bill extends FAST-41 eligibility to both mining and mineral processing projects. We must have a comprehensive mineral strategy that engages and bolsters the entire supply chain. Developing domestic processing capabilities encourages the onshoring of industrial sectors and strengthens domestic supply chains from mining to manufacturing. H.R. 1501 would also prohibit any future administration from finalizing or implementing the Biden-era proposed rule to narrow FAST- 41 coverage to only critical mineral mining projects. Narrowing FAST-41 eligibility in this manner would further increase our country's dependence on foreign nations and adversaries for mineral production. The U.S. Geological Survey annually publishes the ``Mineral Commodity Summaries'' that provide astonishing data on our net import reliance of certain minerals. The report, which is illustrated behind me, highlights our Nation's overwhelming reliance on foreign sources of minerals, including from adversarial nations. If you look at this list, and I know the print is small, the major supplier for most of these critical minerals is China. Mr. Speaker, we need these minerals to build a better future. We have the safest, most sophisticated, efficient, and environmentally friendly mining technology in the world, and we also have the workforce to match it. The United States should be leading the world's mineral supply chain. Representative Shreve's legislation is an important step in strengthening domestic production, securing supply chains, and ensuring that America leads the way. I thank Representative Shreve again for his work on this legislation. I urge all my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is our third day back from a 5-week recess. We have 15 days left here in Washington before the election. It should be a time that we are trying to get some real work done, but instead of doing that, instead of doing a single thing to help our constituents who are struggling under skyrocketing costs of groceries, gas, and electricity bills, Republicans are scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with any bill that their chaotic Conference can find a way to pass, and one of the surest ways, it seems, is to find a way to do another favor for the President's friends and for foreign-owned mining conglomerates. We could actually use some responsible, balanced mineral policy in this country to meet our needs, but, of course, that is not what we are here to do today. We could all agree that we have been overreliant on adversaries for critical minerals for too long. As demand for these minerals grows, we should also want to strengthen our domestic and allied supply chains strategically with American security, sustainability, and human rights at the center of those efforts. Unfortunately, this administration seems to have a different approach. They are throwing billions of taxpayers' dollars at the projects that only seem to benefit themselves. There is a lot of money flying right now in the name of strengthening the mineral supply chain, but when you look beneath the surface, it is going to projects that will not actually help the American people. We have seen this administration make major investments and backroom deals with mining projects with no transparency about who benefits, about what the national security rationale is, or how these decisions actually reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries. Who is actually benefiting? The President's sons, Secretary Lutnick's sons, and campaign donors are all profiting off their personal investments and business ventures. Democrats are asking questions. Unfortunately, we are not getting any help from our friends across the aisle. We are getting stonewalled. [[Page H5453]] Handing out favors to industry and boosting your children's stock portfolios is not a mineral strategy that helps the American people. Now this brings us to H.R. 1501. This bill would codify mining and mineral processing as covered sectors under FAST-41. FAST-41, of course, creates an alternative permitting pathway for covered infrastructure projects. It covers 18 specific sectors, including energy production, surface transportation, semiconductors, and more. The FAST-41 permitting process includes some positive transparency provisions like a centralized public platform that tracks Federal permitting timelines and milestones. Covered projects can also receive additional coordination and resources to help agencies move them through the process more efficiently. It also places some limits on public input, including for Tribes. It also limits judicial review, and it includes limits on court-ordered protections. Here is the thing, Mr. Speaker: We have just heard the main rationale for this bill, that we have to make sure critical minerals mining projects and the processing projects for those critical minerals are eligible for FAST-41. They made it sound as if today's bill would finally make that possible. Well, I have a news flash for everyone. Mining is already a covered sector under a regulation adopted during the first Trump administration. Mineral processing projects are also allowed on FAST-41 as manufacturing, so we have an advertised solution here to a problem that does not exist. {time} 1350 What is this bill all about? That is the other half of the bill, the part that would potentially tie the hands of this and future administrations from using FAST-41 in a smart and ta

Referenced legislation: HRES1499, HRES1499, HR1501