Bipartisan lawmakers called on a House Appropriations subcommittee Monday to ramp up funding for federal work on critical minerals in 2025 spending bills to reduce the nation’s reliance on China.
Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida, Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia and eight of their colleagues said the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development should boost funding for the Energy Department’s work, arguing that doing so would be a strategic move.
Specifically, the letter requests $76 million for the DOE’s Office of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies’ secure and sustainable materials program, which aims to increase domestic availability of critical materials and identify and support alternatives.
“Rising demand for critical minerals in the U.S. is leading to increasing dependence on foreign sources of critical minerals and their downstream products,” the lawmakers wrote. “Crucially, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) controls most of the market for processing and refining cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals.”
