S2860-119

In Committee

Revitalizing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals Dominance Act

119th Congress Introduced Sep 18, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill creates states congressional findings that offshore and seabed critical minerals are strategically important to U.S. economic and national security interests, defines the deep-seabed, offshore-minerals, and processing terms used in the Act, and requires NOAA and the Interior Department to expedite offshore and deep-seabed licensing and leasing, map seabed mineral resources, coordinate with allies, and report on commercial interest and benefit-sharing. It relies on definition changes, compliance mandates, and reporting requirements. The main policy areas are Mining and Energy.

Who Benefits and How

United States companies seeking offshore or seabed mineral exploration, recovery, or processing opportunities could face fewer barriers.

Who Bears the Burden and How

NOAA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Interior Department staff administering expedited reviews and mapping would take on compliance duties.

Key Provisions

  • Creates states congressional findings that offshore and seabed critical minerals are strategically important to U.S. economic and national security interests.
  • Defines the deep-seabed, offshore-minerals, and processing terms used in the Act.
  • Requires NOAA and the Interior Department to expedite offshore and deep-seabed licensing and leasing, map seabed mineral resources, coordinate with allies, and report on commercial interest and benefit-sharing...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

The bill creates states congressional findings that offshore and seabed critical minerals are strategically important to U.S. economic and national security interests, defines the deep-seabed, offshore-minerals, and processing terms used in the Act, and requires NOAA and the Interior Department to expedite offshore and deep-seabed licensing and leasing, map seabed mineral resources, coordinate with allies, and report on commercial interest and benefit-sharing.

Key Policy Areas

Mining, Energy

Primary Purpose

The bill creates states congressional findings that offshore and seabed critical minerals are strategically important to U.S. economic and national security interests, defines the deep-seabed, offshore-minerals, and processing terms used in the Act, and requires NOAA and the Interior Department to expedite offshore and deep-seabed licensing and leasing, map seabed mineral resources, coordinate with allies, and report on commercial interest and benefit-sharing.

Policy Domains

Mining Energy

Sections 2-4 - Offshore critical-mineral acceleration

Identified Gains
  • United States companies seeking offshore or seabed mineral exploration, recovery, or processing opportunities
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
United States companies seeking offshore or seabed mineral exploration, recovery, or processing opportunities:
Identified Costs
  • NOAA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Interior Department staff administering expedited reviews and mapping
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
NOAA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Interior Department staff administering expedited reviews and mapping:

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Feb 12, 2026

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, …

Sep 18, 2025

Mr. Sheehy (for himself, Mr. Cotton, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mrs. …

Sep 18, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and …

Sep 18, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Mining
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

United States companies seeking offshore or seabed mineral exploration, recovery, or processing opportunities

Government
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

NOAA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Interior Department staff administering expedited reviews and mapping

3/4
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Mining Energy
Actor Mappings
"the_administrator"
→ Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
"the_secretary_of_state"
→ Secretary of State
"the_secretary_of_commerce"
→ Secretary of Commerce acting through the NOAA Administrator
"the_secretary_of_the_interior"
→ Secretary of the Interior acting through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management where specified

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

2 terms
"mineral" §3_mineral

Includes critical minerals, uranium, copper, potash, gold, and any other element or compound designated by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council.

"seabed mining" §3_seabed_mining

Prospecting, exploration, or commercial recovery of minerals from the seabed.

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology