Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Strengthen U.S. Critical Mineral Mining Workforce

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and colleagues introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Critical Mineral Mining Education Act, legislation that would help build a workforce pipeline to support the United States' growing domestic critical mineral mining industry and strengthen U.S. science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs.

"Access to critical minerals is crucial to our national security, supply chains, and overall economy. We must do more to boost this sector to ensure we can compete with China and other adversaries," said Kaine. "I'm proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan legislation to grow and strengthen our critical minerals workforce."

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has dominated the global critical mineral supply chain for the last three decades. At the same time, U.S. mining and mineral engineering programs have significantly declined. American programs are graduating only about 300 new mining engineers per year, far below what is needed to fill the workforce gap. The PRC, meanwhile, is home to more than 38 mineral processing schools and upwards of 44 mining engineering programs.

Specifically, the Critical Mineral Mining Education Act would address this issue by:

• Establishing a critical mineral mining fellowship program to send U.S. undergraduate and graduate students overseas to top mining institutions in select countries.
• Establishing a visiting mining scholars program to bring foreign mining academics and professionals to the U.S. to help build and expand mining education programs at U.S. universities.
• Authorizing $10 million annually for each of the 10 years following enactment of the legislation for the two new international exchange programs.

In addition to Kaine, this bill is introduced by U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), John Curtis (R-UT), and Tim Scott (R-SC). Companion legislation is led in the House by U.S. Representatives Johnny Olszewski (D-MD-02), Bill Huizenga (R-MI-04), Ami Bera (D-CA-06), and Young Kim (R-CA-40).

Full text of the bill is available here.

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