118 HR 7636 IH: Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act of 2024
U.S. House of Representatives
2024-03-12
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I
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7636
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 12, 2024
Mrs. Miller of West Virginia (for herself and Mr. Joyce of Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To support international governance of seafloor resource exploration and responsible polymetallic nodule collection by allied partners, strengthen domestic processing and refining capabilities, and for other purposes.
1.

Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act of 2024”.
2.

Seafloor resource exploration and exploitation
(a)

Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1)
The United States is falling behind in competitiveness within supply chains for critical defense and clean energy technologies and therefore must develop an alternative supply of critical minerals to lessen dependance on foreign adversaries.
(2)
Establishing a secure and resilient critical mineral supply chain is a matter of national security.
(3)
China controls roughly 60 percent of the global critical mineral production and over 85 percent of the world’s refining capacity.
(4)
This has been achieved by early and aggressive investment in mining and processing operations across South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
(5)
Recognizing the potential of marine resources to further its position, China is increasing its investment in deep-sea mining, holding the most exploration contracts of any country.
(6)
Investing in alternatives serving to diversify supply such as the collection of seafloor nodules is integral to ensuring the United States does not continue its over-dependence on China and other adversarial nations.
(7)
As mining has been largely outsourced to other parts of the world, China has become the top producer of 30 of the 50 U.S. critical minerals. With this shift, the governance of environmental and social impacts of mining and processing operations is largely out of the control of the United States.
(8)
Prioritizing supply with existing or potential for transparent, accountable, and responsible sourcing is integral to ensuring the United States does not continue to export adverse environmental and social (ESG) impacts of mining and processing abroad in countries that are apathetic or less equipped to abide by internationally accepted standards.
(9)
Investing in the development of mineral resources and processing infrastructure quantitatively proven to reduce ESG impacts, such as seafloor nodules, is integral to ensuring the raw materials that underpin our domestic industrial base and transition to clean energy do not have adverse planetary impacts.
(10)
Developing U.S. partnerships to secure seafloor resources and domestic capabilities to process these materials is in the nation’s economic, environmental and security interests.
(b)

In general
The President shall direct the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy—
(1)
together with Federal interagency efforts, to provide financial, diplomatic, or other forms of support for seafloor nodule collection, processing, and refining where upstream sourcing is compliant with regulations; and
(2)
to coordinate and expedite across Federal agencies the development of infrastructure to process and refine seafloor nodules within the United States.
(c)

Reports
(1)

Office of Science and Technology Policy
The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall annually submit to the President and Congress a report including the following:
(A)
A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the benefits to the United States to importing seafloor nodules and processing and refining such seafloor nodules domestically, including benefits related to—
(i)
foreign relations;
(ii)
research and technology development;
(iii)
environmental and social impact monitoring;
(iv)
utilization of existing industrial base, including offshore infrastructure and processing consumables;
(v)
job creation; and
(vi)
market impact to various industries, including battery and electric vehicle production.
(B)
A quantitative analysis comparing the lifecycle environmental and social effects of sourcing a benchmark amount of critical minerals from seafloor nodules to the environmental and social effects of sourcing such amount of critical minerals from land-based projects, based on the most recent data available from both public and private sources, including consideration of—
(i)
benefit sharing and capacity building;
(ii)
human health and labor conditions;
(iii)
revenue streams; and
(iv)
local ecosystem impacts and the ability to utilize impact mitigation hierarchies, including avoidance, minimization, rehabilitation, and offsets.
(C)
An analysis of the applicability of seafloor nodule collection and data acquisition technologies used in the deep-sea environment for the purpose of initiatives carried out by the United States, including the mapping of technologies used and data acquired in the deep-sea environment in international waters and mapping, exploring, and characterizing minerals in the exclusive economic zone of the United States.
(2)

Department of Commerce
The Secretary of Commerce shall submit to the President and Congress a report that includes a description of Federal legislation and documents that are relevant to the importation and processing of seafloor nodules and seafloor nodule-derived products sourced from outside the exclusive economic zone of the United States by individuals who are not United States citizens, including—
(A)
the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (30 U.S.C. 1401 note et seq.); and
(B)
the internal advice decision letter of the United States Customs and Border Protection regarding the determination of the origination, tariff, and Harmonized Tariff System classification of seafloor nodules and seafloor nodule-derived products.
(d)

Critical mineral defined
In this section, the term critical mineral has the meaning given the term in section 7002(a)(3) of the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a)(3)).