Few things keep me up at night more than our catastrophic dependence on China for the critical minerals that power our military, our economy, and our way of life. We are not talking about a minor supply chain inconvenience. We are talking about a strategic vulnerability that Beijing is actively exploiting and Washington has been far too slow to address.
Serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s first term, I saw firsthand his commitment to protecting America’s critical infrastructure, including the mineral supply chains that our military and economy depend on.
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Trump knew then what too many in Washington refused to admit: China controls approximately 70% of the world’s rare-earth mining and a staggering 90% of global rare-earth processing capacity. They have a hand on the supply chain for the minerals that go into F-35 fighter jets, missile guidance systems, submarines, virtually every advanced weapons platform America fields, and even the everyday conveniences to which Americans are accustomed.
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Access to materials for our cell phones, computers, electric vehicles, refrigerators, and the pipes in our homes is dependent upon this China-led supply chain. When you factor in China’s control of lithium, cobalt, and graphite, the picture gets even darker. Beijing doesn’t just compete with us — they have deliberately built a chokehold around the inputs our military and economy cannot function without.
And what has America done in response? Former President Joe Biden’s administration didn’t just fail to act — they actively made things worse.
In the final days of his term, Biden handed China a gift by unilaterally imposing a 20-year mining ban on over 225,000 acres of land in northern Minnesota, some of the richest mineral deposits on the continent. This region sits atop enormous reserves of copper, nickel, cobalt, and even certain rare metals needed for specialized, high-tech applications. These are precisely the critical minerals the Pentagon has identified as essential to national security. Biden locked them away to score political points with radical environmental activists.
This wasn’t sound policy. It was self-sabotage dressed up as environmentalism, a parting gift to China’s mineral monopoly wrapped in green ribbon.
The good news is Congress can reverse this.
H.J. Res. 140 passed the House of Representatives in January, and the Trump administration has signaled the president would sign it into law. Using the Congressional Review Act, Congress can strike down Biden’s reckless mineral ban and restore access to these vital resources. The resolution is now before the Senate, and the clock is ticking. CRA deadlines don’t wait, and neither will the Chinese Communist Party.
Senate Republicans have a clear choice: Pass H.J. Res. 140 and take a meaningful step toward restoring American mineral sovereignty, or let the clock run out and hand Beijing another decade of dominance by default.
Trump understands the CCP threat very clearly. That’s why he’s taken action to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods and prioritize domestic investment to reduce our reliance on China. He knows that the CCP is not a friendly trade partner that plays by the rules. It is a strategic adversary that has spent decades systematically cornering global mineral markets, buying up mines in Africa, and using state-subsidized enterprises to undercut American producers. China has already weaponized mineral exports, cutting off rare-earth supplies to Japan in 2010 and signaling it could restrict exports to the U.S. during trade disputes. They will do it again.
America sits atop extraordinary mineral wealth. We just need the will and the policy to claim it all, from Minnesota’s Iron Range to deposits across Alaska, Nevada, and Wyoming. We have the geology, the technology, and the workforce. The Biden administration lacked the courage to say what Trump knows to be true: We can succeed with an America First agenda.
H.J. Res. 140 is not a silver bullet, but it is a real and immediate step. Reopening responsible mineral development sends a signal that America is serious about breaking the CCP’s grip on our supply chains.
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Trump has led the way in strengthening our domestic capabilities for producing critical minerals. We know the Republican-led Senate also cares about national security, American jobs, and standing up to China. Now is their opportunity to move this resolution across the finish line as soon as possible.
Trump spent his first term fighting to break America’s dependence on foreign minerals and rebuild our domestic production capacity, and he is continuing to deliver. When Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and fellow Republican Senators pass H.J. Res 140 and send it to Trump’s desk, it will represent a significant win for Americans’ economic security and a loss for Beijing.
Chad Wolf served as Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and is currently a Senior Advisor at the Protecting America Initiative, a conservative nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding the nation from Communist China’s growing influence.
