Today, Western Caucus Vice Chair Doug Lamborn (CO-05), joined by Chairman Dan Newhouse (WA-04) and Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01), introduced legislation to rescind the Biden Administration’s changes to the FAST-41 process for mining projects, which limit eligible projects to only those that meet the Critical Mineral definition from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
“At a time when America should work to secure domestic supply chains, the Biden Administration is redefining the process to make starting new projects harder for minerals not listed as ‘critical’ by USGS,” said Chairman Newhouse. “This rule change would make the United States even more reliant on Communist China for minerals, putting our national and economic security at risk. I’m proud to join Western Caucus Vice Chair Lamborn on this legislation to overturn the Administration’s changes to FAST-41 that will slow down project approval for certain new mines, such as copper mines. The Western Caucus is committed to securing and strengthening America’s domestic mineral production.”
“As Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I have consistently pushed back against the Biden Administration to protect American energy production,” said Vice Chair Lamborn. “Our bill will ensure a secure domestic mineral supply chain and push back against China’s chokehold on the production and refinement of minerals.”
“The Biden administration’s proposed rule will prevent the U.S. from meeting our domestic mining production goals and reducing our reliance on China,” said Rep. Moore. “Utah’s mining industry consists almost entirely of materials that are not on the Department of Energy’s critical minerals list, yet it supports over 43,000 jobs and contributes over $5.2 billion to the state’s GDP every year. At a time when legacy mineral demand has never been higher, the federal government needs to leverage every tool to meet our energy manufacturing and infrastructure needs rather than sending the wrong signal to industry. I’m proud to co-sponsor this bill that would overturn President Biden’s rule and ensure Utah mining projects qualify for FAST-41 status.”
“By severely limiting the mining sector’s ability to utilize the benefits of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), the Biden administration is contradicting its own stated goal of streamlining permitting,” said the National Mining Association. “Mineral demand is at its highest in history – and growing – and we need to jumpstart more domestic, responsible mining; instead, the proposed FPISC rule would increase our dependence on minerals sourced from countries like China and Russia. This bill, combined with other bipartisan congressional efforts urging the FPISC to rescind its proposed rule, will support and enable greater investments in domestic energy, defense, and manufacturing supply chains essential to U.S. economic and national security."
FAST-41 Background
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act was enacted on December 4, 2015. Title 41 of the act (FAST-41) established new coordination and oversight procedures for infrastructure projects being reviewed by federal agencies.
FAST-41 is intended to:
- Improve early consultation and coordination among government agencies
- Increase transparency through the publication of project-specific timetables with completion dates for all federal authorizations and environmental reviews
- Increase accountability through consultation and reporting on projects
In 2021, mining was added as a sector under FAST-41, and projects could then work through the 18 possible criteria to meet in order to be expedited. These range from renewable and conventional energy production to semiconductors and AI. Many of these projects are crucial and critical to American leadership in many sectors.
Read the bill
here.
