HR5021-118

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Securing American Critical Minerals Act of 2023.

2. Prohibition of sale of critical minerals to foreign entities of concern by persons conducting certain mineral activities on Federal land No operator may sell or transfer any covered mineral to a foreign entity of concern. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary may decline to issue or renew any covered authorization to any person if— such person is a foreign entity of concern; such person has violated subsection (a); any report made available to the public under subsection (d) by such person is incomplete or inaccurate; or the issuance of such authorization would negatively affect the national security of the United States through the subsequent sale or transfer of any product resulting from the issuance of such authorization to a foreign entity of concern. The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and such other Federal agencies as the Secretary determines appropriate, shall establish by regulation such administrative, civil, and criminal penalties as the Secretary determines, after such consultation, appropriate for— a violation of subsection (a); and a failure to submit a complete and accurate report under subsection (d). Each operator shall make available to the public a report, not later than June 30 of each calendar year that succeeds a calendar year in which such person sold or transferred a covered mineral, that with respect to the preceding calendar year— identifies the covered mineral such operator extracted, produced, or refined on Federal land and the location of each such activity with respect to each covered mineral; identifies the purchaser or transferee of any covered mineral sold or transferred by such operator; and includes a certification that the operator has determined that such purchaser or transferee is not a foreign entity of concern. The Secretary shall include in each covered authorization issued after the date of the enactment of this section a requirement to pay a fee in such amount as the Secretary determines appropriate to provide amounts sufficient to administer this section with respect to each fiscal year. The Secretary shall publish and submit to Congress an annual report summarizing with respect to each covered mineral— the aggregate contents of reports filed under subsection (d); the number and types of covered authorizations denied under subsection (b); and the number and types of penalties imposed under subsection (c). Any fee collected under subsection (e) shall be made available to the Secretary to carry out this section and shall remain available until expended. In this section: The term covered authorization means any permit, claim, lease, or other authorization issued by the Secretary of the Interior relating to covered mineral activities. The term covered mineral means a critical mineral (as such term is defined in section 7002 of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606)) extracted, produced, or refined on Federal land. The term covered mineral activities means the extraction, production, or refinement of a covered mineral on Federal land. The term foreign entity of concern has the meaning given such term in section 9901 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4651). The term operator means a person that conducts covered mineral activities or a related person (within the meaning of section 267(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) of such person. The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior.