Title: Uranium Classification Act of 2019
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources

Summary:
Removing Uranium from the Critical Minerals List Act
This bill directs the Department of the Interior to remove uranium from the critical minerals list. (A "critical mineral" is a nonfuel mineral or mineral material that is essential to economic and national security, from a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption, and that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the U.S. economy or national security.)

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3405 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3405

  To direct the Secretary of the Interior to revise the Final List of 
               Critical Minerals, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 21, 2019

 Mr. Grijalva (for himself and Mr. Lowenthal) introduced the following 
     bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the Secretary of the Interior to revise the Final List of 
               Critical Minerals, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Removing Uranium from the Critical 
Minerals List Act.''

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Pursuant to Executive Order 13817, the Department of 
        the Interior published a Final List of Critical Minerals 2018 
        (83 Fed. Reg. 23295) on May 18th, 2018, that categorizes 
        uranium as a critical mineral.
            (2) A ``critical mineral'', as defined by Executive Order 
        13817, is a mineral--
                    (A) identified to be a nonfuel mineral or mineral 
                material essential to the economic and national 
                security of the United States;
                    (B) from a supply chain that is vulnerable to 
                disruption; and
                    (C) that serves an essential function in the 
                manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would 
                have substantial consequences for the United States 
                economy or national security.
            (3) The terms ``nonfuel mineral'' and ``mineral material'' 
        are used elsewhere in Federal law and do not include uranium.
            (4) Uranium is defined as a ``mineral fuel'' by the Mining 
        and Minerals Policy Act of 1970--
                    (A) consistent with how uranium has been uniformly 
                described by the United States Geological Survey, the 
                Bureau of Land Management, the National Science and 
                Technology Council Subcommittee on Critical and 
                Strategic Mineral Supply, and others; and
                    (B) supported by the Department of Energy's Energy 
                Information Administration categorizing uranium with 
                coal, natural gas, and petroleum as an energy mineral 
                since 1977.
            (5) Uranium is not a ``mineral material'' because--
                    (A) the Materials Act of 1947 and the Multiple 
                Surface Use Act of 1955 define mineral materials as 
                ``common varieties'' of sand, stone, gravel, pumice, 
                pumicite, cinders, and clay; and
                    (B) Federal agencies do not treat uranium as a 
                ``common variety mineral'' but as a mineral locatable 
                under the General Mining Act of 1872.
            (6) The United States uranium supply chain is not 
        vulnerable to disruption, nor is it highly concentrated in 
        individual markets, two requirements identified in the 
        Department's methodology for being considered a critical 
        mineral.
            (7) In 2017, the United States imported 52 percent of its 
        uranium from Canada and Australia.
            (8) The Department of the Interior did not demonstrate how 
        uranium meets the definition of a ``nonfuel mineral'' or of 
        ``mineral material'', nor did the Department demonstrate that 
        the uranium supply chain is vulnerable to disruption.
            (9) No other significant analysis of critical minerals, 
        including those published by the National Research Council, the 
        National Science and Technology Council, the Department of 
        Energy, the American Physical Society, and the Materials 
        Research Society categorize uranium as a critical mineral.

SEC. 3. REVISION OF FINAL RULE REGARDING CRITICAL MINERALS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall revise the Final List 
of Critical Minerals, and any related regulations, to remove uranium 
from such list.
    (b) Restriction.--The Secretary of the Interior may not add uranium 
to the Final List of Critical Minerals.
    (c) Final List of Critical Minerals.--The term ``Final List of 
Critical Minerals'' means the Final List of Critical Minerals issued 
pursuant to Executive Order 13817 (82 Fed. Reg. 60835, relating to a 
Federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical 
minerals).
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