Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.), a senior member of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee — and a leading candidate to chair the committee next Congress — is rolling out legislation on Friday that creates a national roadmap focused on “reshor[ing] domestic critical material processing facilities away from foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and [on] reduc[ing] unworkable permitting barriers to help secure our supply chains.”

The Securing America’s Midstream Critical Materials Processing Act, first obtained by the Washington Reporter, is co-sponsored with Reps. Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.) and Russ Fulcher (R., Idaho), and has the support of influential groups like the American Critical Minerals Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Mining Association.

Under this legislation, the Department of Energy will survey topics ranging from “the extent to which China and other adversaries employ anti-competitive practices to manipulate critical material markets” to the “permitting challenges facing a domestic critical material processing industry.”

It will also require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study how to improve federal permitting by examining “how the Inflation Reduction Act may have fueled Chinese greenfield investment in Free Trade Agreement countries.”

“For too long our nation has been reliant on the CCP and other foreign adversaries for the essential facilities to process critical materials into usable resources for our manufacturing industry,” Guthrie said.

Newhouse, who is on the House Select Committee on the CCP, said that “it is no secret the United States is in a dangerous position with our reliance on adversaries like the CCP for the critical minerals we use in everything from our energy sector to our defense industrial base,” and added that “the legislation is “a big step towards bringing critical mineral processing back to our shores and keeping bad actors out of our supply chains.”

Rep. Fulcher added that “critical minerals are not only vital to America’s energy supply, but to our national security as they are a key component for defense technologies and weaponry.” The Idaho lawmaker added that he is “proud to introduce this bill alongside Congressmen Guthrie and Newhouse to establish a national roadmap to bring the development and processing of key minerals back to the USA. Securing America’s energy independence starts with securing our critical minerals supply chain.”