Henrico Times

Today, Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) led the inaugural roundtable discussion of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s newly established Critical Minerals Policy Working Group.

Congressman Wittman was appointed last week to lead this working group, which aims to develop legislation and raise awareness through committee events to counter the CCP's dominance in critical minerals.

Rep. Wittman’s opening statement as prepared for delivery:

“Thank you for joining me today for the first session of our new critical mineral policy working group. I am pleased to lead this group of Select Committee members with Congresswoman Castor as we dig into the details of the U.S. overreliance on critical mineral supply chains that the People’s Republic of China dominates.

In addition to our work to educate the American public on these challenges, we will also explore opportunities to produce legislation—in conjunction with our standing Committee colleagues—to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s dominance of critical minerals. We intended to build upon the Select Committee's December policy recommendations to fundamentally reset the United States' economic and technological competition with the PRC.

Now, on to today’s roundtable. Critical minerals and materials are essential to the economic and national security of the United States. Whether it is the batteries in the vehicles we drive, the superalloys that maintain strength of jet engine turbine blades, the catalysts that convert oil to gasoline, or the permanent magnets used in electric motors, wind turbines, and industrial automation systems, there is simply no part of emerging technologies that do not rely on processed critical minerals.

For decades, PRC policies have aimed to concentrate rare earth elements (REE) and critical mineral supply chains in China. Export quotas and value-added tax incentives on rare earth elements, vertical integration of mining and production by state-owned companies, and investment restrictions prohibiting foreign companies from extracting or refining rare earth elements in the PRC contributed to this control.

The first red flag came in 2010 when the PRC sharply reduced REE exports to Japan over a maritime dispute over the Senkaku islands. Then in 2020, the PRC restricted foreign investment in exploration and extraction of rare earths and is currently contemplating export controls on REE refinement technologies, limiting refinement outside of the PRC. On August 1st, China also imposed export restrictions on gallium and germanium, then later in the year on graphite. It is clear that PRC is eager to leverage choke points it developed in this critical sector to harm U.S. national security.

Congress has taken steps to reduce this reliance but we cannot focus exclusively on downstream production of batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines—all of which rely on processed critical minerals. If even one stage of production remains in PRC its chokehold on American economic and national security will remain. We must do more to unlock our resources domestically—and with allies and partners—as we also invest in processing, refinement, and metallization of critical minerals. No step in production can be left in PRC.

Today we have three terrific participants to help us explore these issues:

Abigail Wulf is head of American Battery Materials Initiative at U.S. Department of Energy and one foremost experts on critical mineral supply chains.

Matt Sloustcher is Senior Vice President at MP Materials one only companies actively mining concentrating rare earth elements domestically U.S.

Abigail Hunter executive director Center Critical Mineral Strategy Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) where she works secure all aspects critical mineral supply chain ensure U.S economic national security.

With that I turn over floor Congresswoman Castor.”