HR4090-119

What This Bill Does

The Critical Mineral Dominance Act sets a federal policy goal: make the United States the leading producer of hardrock minerals, including rare earth minerals, to create jobs, strengthen supply chains for the United States and allies, improve national security, and reduce the influence of adversarial states. Within 90 days, the Secretary of the Interior must report to House Natural Resources and Senate Energy committees on the dollar value and economy-wide impact of import reliance for mineral commodities listed in the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025. Beginning in 2026, USGS must include that import-reliance value and economic-impact information in each annual Mineral Commodity Summaries publication.

The bill then pushes Interior and Agriculture toward rapid mining-project approvals on federal land. Within 10 days after enactment and annually thereafter, the Secretary must list mining projects on federal land with pending plans of operations, permit applications, or other approvals. Within 10 days after submitting that list, the Secretary must identify priority projects that can be immediately approved and take necessary and appropriate action to expedite those approvals. The Secretary also must list active, inactive, or proposed federal-land mining projects that could increase hardrock mineral production, expand byproduct production, recover minerals from mine tailings, or recover minerals from coal ash and coal byproducts, and must report on barriers to byproduct production within one year.

The bill requires Interior to identify federal lands managed by Interior or Agriculture that may be leased or located for hardrock exploration, development, or production, including unexplored lands with possible minerals and lands with known economically recoverable minerals. It prioritizes lands that can be permitted and made operational quickly and that would strengthen the domestic mineral supply chain. Interior and Agriculture must review regulations, orders, guidance, policies, settlements, consent orders, public land withdrawals, and other agency actions for undue burdens on domestic mining, solicit industry feedback, and begin an action plan to suspend, revise, or rescind burdensome actions. It also accelerates geologic mapping of unknown hardrock deposits and requires a report on the national mapping effort.

Who Benefits and How

Domestic hardrock mining companies, rare earth mineral producers, mineral processors, mining companies with pending federal permit applications, coal ash reprocessing companies, tailings reprocessing companies, mineral exploration firms, geologic surveying contractors, defense contractors reliant on critical minerals, battery manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, and allied supply-chain planners benefit from faster project listings, expedited approvals, land inventories, mapping data, byproduct opportunities, and regulatory rollback plans. House Natural Resources and Senate Energy committee staff benefit from recurring reports and project lists.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, federal land managers, environmental review staff, public land conservation advocates, tribal consultation interests, local governments near mining projects, and state regulators must comply with short reporting deadlines, annual land and project lists, industry-feedback processes, action plans to revise or rescind burdensome agency actions, and faster mineral mapping. Foreign mineral suppliers, especially suppliers linked to adversarial states, may lose market leverage if domestic production expands.

Key Provisions

• Establishes U.S. policy to become the leading producer of hardrock and rare earth minerals.
• Requires Interior to report the dollar value and economic impact of U.S. mineral import reliance.
• Requires USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries to include import-reliance value and economic-impact data beginning in 2026.
• Requires fast listing and expedited approval of priority mining projects on federal land.
• Requires lists of projects that could produce minerals from byproducts, mine tailings, coal ash, or coal byproducts.
• Requires identification of federal lands with hardrock mineral potential and annual congressional reporting.
• Requires a regulatory review, industry feedback, and an action plan to suspend, revise, or rescind burdensome mining-related agency actions.
• Requires accelerated national geologic mapping focused on previously unknown hardrock mineral deposits.