Congress quietly raises tax breaks for rare earth miners
S. 4033 — Critical Minerals Investment Tax Modernization Act of 2026 · Filed by Jon Husted (R-OH) · Introduced Mar 10, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill increases the tax deduction (percentage depletion allowance) that mining companies can claim when extracting rare earth elements and scandium from 15% to 22% of gross income. The higher deduction reduces taxable income and thus federal tax liability for rare earth miners, effective immediately upon enactment.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a tax deduction increase for a specific industry sector. It is a straightforward, if narrow, tax expenditure benefiting rare earth miners.
What the text implies
- The 22% depletion rate may incentivize domestic rare earth mining, potentially reducing U.S. reliance on foreign supplies, but this geopolitical benefit is not stated in the bill and is speculative.
- Increasing the depletion allowance for rare earths but not other minerals creates a competitive advantage for rare earth miners relative to other extractive industries, potentially distorting capital allocation.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
rare earth mining companies; scandium mining operations