Stop Stock Piling, Start Developing
By Stephanie Halcrow
August 05, 2022Ambilimon Annamala Poosari
COVID-19 highlighted the importance of a robust and resilient supply chain. Suddenly, Americans were personally aware of the impact of supply chains interruptions in everyday items like toilet paper. The importance of the supply chain for strategic and critical materials is not as well appreciated. Even less appreciated is our country’s dependence on foreign sources for these strategic and critical materials in everyday items like cell phones, vehicles, and even microchips. Imagine a scenario where cell phones and vehicles were as scare as toilet paper was in 2020.
This is not a new problem. In 1939, Congress determined certain strategic and critical materials in the United States were deficient for common defense. Congress directed not only the acquisition of stocks but also encouraged the development of mines to decrease the “dangerous and costly dependence” on foreign nations. Congress gave responsibility for the acquisition of stocks to the Secretary of War (now the Secretary of Defense) and the responsibility of the “development, mining, preparation, treatment, and utilization of ores” to the Secretary of the Interior. Over time, Title 50 was amended placing responsibility of these efforts with the President who was charged with making “scientific, technologic, and economic investigations concerning the development, mining, preparation, treatment, and utilization” for new domestic sources of supply. Even with this elevation of responsibility, the United States is more reliant on foreign sources of strategic and critical materials than it was 83 years ago.
The federal government is aware of the “dangerous and costly dependence” on foreign nations. In 2019, the Department of Commerce issued a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals with six Calls to Action, 24 goals, and 61 recommendations. The Government Accountability Office recently reported on the effectiveness of this federal strategy and found room for improvement.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/08/05/stop_stock_piling_start_developing_846456.html
