State Department starts program to work with allies on critical minerals research.
S. 5637 — STRATA Act of 2026 · Filed by Christopher Coons (D-DE) · Introduced Sep 30, 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
The bill sets up a Critical Minerals Innovation Partnership Program in the State Department. It lets the Secretary of State work with allied countries on research. The research covers finding, processing, recycling, and replacing critical minerals. Critical minerals include rare earths, lithium, and cobalt. The program gives money through grants and agreements. It sets up Centers of Excellence to help with technical work. It runs a digital platform for U.S. companies to join. The program ends after 10 years, but deals already made can keep going.
Who it affects
Research schools, U.S. companies, and allied governments that join will be most affected. U.S. development finance agencies like USAID and the Export-Import Bank will help coordinate. Most regular people will not see a direct benefit. New technology could help the country's supply of critical minerals over time.
One thing to notice
The Secretary of State gets broad power to pick which countries and companies can join. There are few rules beyond calling them allies. The program can also fund research on other emerging technologies beyond critical minerals. This could change what the program does over time.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- critical minerals — Metals and elements the country needs but does not make enough of.
- allied countries — Nations that work closely with the United States as partners and friends.
- Centers of Excellence — Special places set up to teach and help with technical skills and knowledge.
- digital platform — A website or online system where U.S. companies can sign up and take part.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (27,456 characters) on Oct 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“State Department starts program to work with allies on critical minerals research.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5637/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.