Top House and Senate Democrats are investigating the Trump administration’s unprecedented move to directly invest or take equity stakes in more than a half-dozen mining and mineral companies.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), House Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) are demanding documents and a briefing from the secretaries of Energy, Defense, Commerce and Interior.
“By privileging select corporations through direct ownership — essentially picking winners and losers — the government may undermine broader market competition and the development of innovative technologies or mineral or material substitutions,” the lawmakers wrote in letters to the agencies Monday.
When asked about the letters, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the president “remains committed to reshoring critical manufacturing and supporting American companies with a full policy suite of tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation.”
