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 Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security [Docket No. 230817-0198]
XRIN: 0694-XC099
 AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce.
 ACTION: Notice of inquiry; request for comments.
 SUMMARY: The National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee, co-chaired by the Departments of Commerce and State, is seeking public comments on the potential market impact of proposed changes of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Annual Materials Plan (AMP). Potential changes to the AMP are decided by the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee, who advise the Defense Logistics Agency in its role as the National Defense Stockpile Manager on the projected domestic and foreign economic effects of all acquisitions, conversions, and disposals involving the National Defense Stockpile.
 DATES: To be considered, written comments must be received by October 5, 2023.
 ADDRESSES: Submissions: You may submit comments, identified by docket number BIS-2023-0018 or XRIN 0694-XC099, through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: 
                        *https://www.regulations.gov.*
                         To submit comments via 
                        *https://www.regulations.gov,*
                         enter the docket 
                        ( print page 60634)
                        number BIS-2023-0018 on the home page and click “Search.” The site will provide a search results page listing all documents associated with this docket. Find a reference to this notice and click the button entitled “Comment.” Further instructions on how to submit a comment on 
                        *regulations.gov*
                         can be found on the FAQ page. BIS also requests commenters review the instructions in the Additional Instructions for Comments section further in this notice. BIS, as the publisher of the notice, will be receiving the comments and disseminating them to the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee. While BIS encourages the submissions of comments via 
                        *https://www.regulations.gov,*
                         comments may also be submitted via email to the following: Katherine Reid, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security, email: 
                        *MIC@bis.doc.gov.*
                         All comments submitted through email to Commerce must include the phrase “Market Impact Committee Notice of Inquiry” in the subject line and will be added to the docket on 
                        *regulations.gov.*
                         Public comments are an important element of the Committee's market impact review process.
 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marina Youssef, Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce, telephone: (202) 482-3504, (Attn: Marina Youssef), email: 
                        *MIC@bis.doc.gov.*


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  Background The federal government operates several different stockpiles that are managed by different federal agencies depending on the stockpile's purpose. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) manages the Strategic National Stockpile, which contains medicines and medical equipment. HHS' stockpile can supplement medical countermeasures needed by states, tribal nations, territories, and the largest metropolitan areas during public health emergencies. Another example is the Department of Energy's operation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for use when the international oil market is severely disrupted. The Department of Defense (DOD) maintains a stockpile of critical and strategic materials known as the National Defense Stockpile (NDS). During a war or national emergency, this stockpile is meant to provide strategic and critical materials to support national defense and essential civilian requirements in a time of national emergency. The stockpile currently contains 57 materials (
                    *i.e.,*
                     primarily minerals) that are deemed strategic and critical to national security.[1] Under the authority of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Revision Act of 1979, as amended (the Stock Piling Act) (50 U.S.C. 98 
                    *et seq.*), the Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is the National Defense Stockpile Manager. The NDS is a strategic stockpile, not an economic stockpile. It is not intended to influence prices in the market or insulate private industry from supply shocks. Rather, its purpose is to ensure the defense and essential civilian industrial base has consistent access to the materiel it needs—and the private industries making products have the raw materials they need—during a war or national emergency. Congress authorizes the sale of excess materials in the stockpile and proceeds of the sales are transferred to the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund. The NDS does not receive annual appropriations in the defense budget for operations expenses. Instead, the stockpile has a revolving fund in what the U.S. Treasury termed the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund.[2]
                    
                     Whenever materials in the stockpile are sold, the proceeds of that sale are added to that fund. The DLA then uses that money to pay for the operational expenses accompanying the maintenance of the stockpile and to purchase new materials. Information about stockpile disposals—what was sold and at what value it was sold—is publicly available in monthly announcements published by DLA.[3] Section 3314 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993 (FY 1993 NDAA) (50 U.S.C. 98h-1) formally established a Market Impact Committee (the Committee) to “advise the National Defense Stockpile Manager on the projected domestic and foreign economic effects of all acquisitions and disposals of materials from the stockpile . . .” The Committee must also balance market impact concerns with the statutory requirement to protect the U.S. Government against avoidable loss. 
                    *See*50 U.S.C. 98e(b)(2). The Committee is comprised of representatives from the Departments of Commerce, State, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, the Treasury, and Homeland Security. The FY 1993 NDAA directs the Committee to consult with industry representatives that produce, process, or consume the types of materials stored in the Stockpile as the National Defense Stockpile Manager. The DLA must produce an Annual Materials Plan (AMP) proposing the maximum quantity of each listed material that may be acquired, disposed of, upgraded, converted, recovered, or sold by the DLA in a particular fiscal year. With this notice, Commerce, on behalf of DLA, lists the quantities and types of activity—potential disposals, potential acquisitions, potential conversions (upgrade, rotation, reprocessing, etc.) or potential recovery (from government sources)—associated with each material in its proposed FY 2025 AMP. The quantities listed in Attachment 1 are not acquisition, disposal, upgrade, conversion, recovery, reprocessing, or sales target quantities, but rather a statement of the proposed maximum quantity of each listed material that may be acquired, disposed of, upgraded, converted, recovered, or sold in a particular fiscal year by the DLA. The quantity of each material that will actually be acquired or offered for sale will depend on the market for the material at the time of the acquisition or offering, as well as on the quantity of each material approved by Congress for acquisition, disposal, conversion, or recovery. Additional Instructions for Comments The Committee is interested in any supporting data and documentation on the potential market impact of the quantities associated with the proposed FY 2025 AMP. While 
                    *regulations.gov*
                     allows users to provide comments by filling in a “Type Comment” field or by attaching a document using an “Upload File” field, BIS prefers comments be provided in an attached document—preferably in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If the submission is in an application format other than Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat, please indicate the name of the application in the “Type Comment” field. Please do not attach separate cover letters to electronic submissions; rather, include any information that might appear in a cover letter within the comments. Please include any exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in the same file, so the submission consists of one instead of multiple files. All filers should name 
                    ( print page 60635)
                    their files using the name of the person or entity submitting the comments. Submitted materials properly marked as business confidential information with a valid statutory basis for confidentiality and which is accepted as such by BIS will not be disclosed publicly. Commenters submitting business confidential information should clearly identify the business confidential portion at the time of submission, include a statement justifying nondisclosure and referring to the specific legal authority claimed with the submission, and provide a non-confidential version of the submission which will be placed in the public file on 
                    *https://www.regulations.gov.*
                     For comments containing business confidential information, the file name of the business confidential version should begin with the characters “BC”. Any page containing business confidential information must be clearly marked “BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL” on the top of that page. The file name of the non-confidential version should begin with the character “P”. The non-confidential version must be clearly marked “PUBLIC” on the top of the first page. The “BC” and “P” should be followed by the name of the person or entity submitting the comments. Commenters submitting business confidential information are encouraged to scan a hard copy of the non-confidential version to create an image of the file, rather than submitting a digital copy with redactions applied, to avoid inadvertent redaction errors which could enable the public to read business confidential information. Public comments will be available on 
                    *regulations.gov*, and the BIS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) website at 
                    *https://efoia.bis.doc.gov/​.*
                     This office does not maintain a separate public inspection facility. If you have technical difficulties accessing this website, please call BIS's Office of Administration at (202) 482-1900 for assistance. Attachment 1 Proposed Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Materials Plan
Material
Unit
Quantity
FootnotePotential Disposals:Beryllium Metal
ST
8Carbon Fibers
Lbs
92,000
1Chromium, Ferro
ST
24,000Chromium, Metal
ST
500Germanium
kg
5,000Manganese, Ferro
ST
20,000
1Manganese, Metallurgical Grade
SDT
320,300
1Aerospace Alloys
Lbs
1,500,000Platinum
Tr Oz
8,380
1PGM—Iridium
Tr Oz
489
1Quartz Crystals
Lbs
15,712
1Tantalum
Lbs
190
1Tin
MT
640Titanium Based Alloys
Lbs
300,000Tungsten Ores & Concentrates
Lbs W
1,100,000
1Zinc
ST
2,500Potential Acquisitions:Aluminum (High Purity)
MT
1,700Aluminum Alloys
MT
1,500Antimony
MT
700Cadmium Zinc Telluride
EA
2,800Electrolytic Manganese Metal
MT
5,000Energetics
Lbs
20,000,000Ferroniobium
Lbs Nb
300,000Grain Oriented Electric Steel
MT
3,200Hafnium
MT
2,300Iso-Molded Graphite
MT
1,700Lanthanum
MT
1,100Magnesium
MT
3,500Neodymium-Praseodymium Oxide
MT
300NdFeB Magnet Block
MT
450Rayon
MT
200Samarium-Cobalt Alloy
MT
60Tantalum
Lbs Ta
64,500Tire Cord Steel
MT
2,370Titanium
ST
15,000Tungsten
Lbs W
4,500,500Zirconium
MT
2,300Potential Conversions (Upgrade, rotation, reprocessing, etc.):Aerospace Alloys
Lbs
50,000Antimony
Lbs
198,000Beryllium Metal
ST
8CZT (Cadmium Zinc Tellurium substrates)
EA
1,000Carbon Fibers
Lbs
5,000Europium
MT
35Germanium
kg
5,000Iridium Catalyst
Lbs
200Lithium Ion Materials
MT
50Rare Earths Elements
MT
12Silicon Carbide Fibers
Lbs
875( print page 60636)Triamino Trinitrobenzene (TATB)
Lbs
48,000Potential Recovery from Government sources:Aerospace Alloys
Lbs
1,500,000Battery Materials
MT
100Boron Carbide
MT
300Cobalt
Lbs
50,000E-Waste
MT
100
2Germanium
kg
5,000Iridium Catalyst
Lbs
200Magnesium Metal
MT
25Rare Earths
Lbs
20,000Tantalum
MT
10Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Rods
kg
2501 Actual quantity will be limited to remaining excess inventory.2 Strategic and Critical Materials collected from E-Waste (Strategic Materials collected from electronics waste).
 Thea D. Rozman Kendler, Assistant Secretary for Export Administration.


# Footnotes

1.
    
                         Defense Logistics Agency, “Strategic Materials: Office,” U.S. Department of Defense, 
                        *https://www.dla.mil/​Strategic-Materials/​About*. Back to Citation
 2.
    
                         Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Revision Act of 1979, Public Law 96-41, p. 5. Back to Citation
 3.
    
                         
                        *https://www.dla.mil/​Strategic-Materials/​Announcements/​*. Back to Citation


[FR Doc. 2023-19057 Filed 9-1-23; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510-33-P