Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Huffman Representing the 2nd District of California
February 04, 2026
Washington, D.C. — Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) took to the House Floor to oppose H.R. 4090, the so-called Critical Minerals Dominance Act, calling out the bill for giving the mining industry the power to rewrite its own rules while doing nothing to secure American supply chains.
Watch Ranking Member Huffman speak on House floor here. (February 4, 2026)
“I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 4090, a bill that hands the mining industry, amazingly, the power to gut its own regulations while doing nothing to secure American mineral supply chains or help make life more affordable for the American people. It’s more the same from House Republicans and this administration, more favors for their billionaire buddies, and more ways to enrich themselves, all at the expense of the American people who are struggling,” Ranking Member Huffman said on the House Floor.
“If we asked everyday Americans right now: “list a hundred things that you care about that you want Congress to be working on to make your life better,” I promise you that giving more sweetheart deals to multinational mining corporations would not be anywhere on that list.”
“I can think of a thousand better ways to spend our time than debating this bill on the House floor. We could be reining in the out-of-control agency ICE, which is terrorizing communities around the country, murdering people in the streets. We should be addressing skyrocketing health care costs, which our Republican colleagues seem to have forgotten entirely about. We could be talking about how to lower energy prices, including the skyrocketing utility bills caused by Donald Trump’s crazy war on clean energy. But no, we are back here once again talking about deregulation designed for and by the mining industry.”
On the lack of safeguards in the bill, Ranking Member Huffman added, “There’s nothing to stop this administration right now from prioritizing mines owned and controlled by our foreign adversaries, and that loophole, that glaring problem, that national security threat, is not corrected at all in this bill. There’s nothing to require a focus on minerals actually needed for clean energy and national defense, nothing to prevent the administration from approving mines on sensitive public lands, or even in our national parks.”
Background
H.R. 4090, the Critical Minerals Dominance Act, would codify parts of President Trump’s Executive Orders on mining and direct the Interior Secretary to expedite and approve priority mining projects with no restrictions on ownership, mineral type, or location. The bill creates no safeguards against prioritizing mines owned by foreign adversaries, fails to focus on minerals needed for clean energy or national defense, and would allow mining even on sensitive public lands. The legislation looks to the mining industry itself for direction on which regulations to roll back, with no requirement for public input or tribal consultation.
Earlier this week, Ranking Member Huffman – along with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) – demanded the Trump administration release documents and brief Congress on their unprecedented acquisition of equity stakes in multiple mining and mineral companies using taxpayer dollars. Since July, the administration has gone on a buying spree, aggressively acquiring ownership stakes in multiple private mining corporations – the very same ones that would benefit from H.R. 4090.
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