Congress demands a map of global mineral power—and a plan to break China's grip
S. 789 — Critical Minerals Security Act of 2025 · Filed by John Cornyn (R-TX) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 27, 2025 · Reported out
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 requires the Interior Department to report annually on global critical mineral and rare earth element supplies—tracking which are controlled by U.S. adversaries, allies, or the U.S. itself—and to develop a strategy for advancing U.S. and allied mining and processing technologies. It also establishes a process for U.S. companies to notify the government before divesting from foreign mining operations, potentially receiving help finding non-adversary buyers.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is information-gathering and technology-development strategy aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on adversarial sources of critical minerals—a national-security and economic-resilience measure, not a subsidy or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The divestment-notification process may create a de facto screening mechanism for foreign mining investments by U.S. entities, potentially chilling private capital flows to certain regions without formal legal prohibition.
- Intellectual-property sharing with allied governments could accelerate mining and processing in allied nations, shifting competitive advantage away from current U.S. mining operators toward allied competitors.
- The bill's reliance on cross-agency coordination (Interior, Energy, State, Commerce) without explicit funding or enforcement mechanisms may result in delayed or incomplete reporting and strategy development.
- Defining 'foreign entity of concern' by reference to external statutes (10 USC § 4872, Infrastructure Act § 40207) creates a moving target—changes to those definitions automatically alter the bill's scope without amendment.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates transparency and strategic planning around supply chains critical to national security, clean energy, and manufacturing—benefiting citizens by reducing dependence on adversarial regimes and strengthening allied partnerships. No direct restrictions on citizen rights or remedies are imposed; the reporting and divestment-notification provisions serve public accountability and strategic resilience.
Who stands to gain
- U.S. and allied mining companies (through strategic positioning and technology access)
- Advanced mining and processing technology developers
- Recycling and separation technology firms
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce, Covered nations (defined by reference to 10 USC § 4872), Foreign entities of concern (defined by reference to Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act § 40207), Rare earth elements (17 named elements: cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, l, Critical minerals (defined by reference to Energy Act of 2020 § 7002)
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans, 1 Independents.
- Feb 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 27, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Mar 12, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 119-46”
- Jun 10, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,740,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 32 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
John Cornyn, the sponsor, reported $2,042,484 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Dow Chemical Company Dba Dow — $2,740,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,090 characters) on Jun 8, 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress demands a map of global mineral power—and a plan to break China's grip” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s789 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.