NIST Reauthorization Act of 2014

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 1022, the Securing Energy Critical Elements and American Jobs Act of 2014.

I want to thank Chairman Smith for working with me on this bill for over a year. We introduced this in March 2013. We have talked a number of times about this bill, and I appreciate the attention the majority staff has shown to get this bill to the floor. I also appreciate the work of our ranking member, Ms. Johnson, on the minority side, and that of Congressman Hultgren, as well as the work of Mrs. Lummis, the chair of the Energy Subcommittee. We have truly worked in a bipartisan manner to move this bill to the floor.

Did you know, Mr. Speaker, that energy critical elements are crucial to powering our cell phones? to powering our airplanes and to producing renewable energy?

They include elements, many of which I never learned about in my chemistry class in high school, like cobalt, lanthanum, and helium. These elements are critical to the innovation economy and to our national defense, but here is the problem. Today, almost entirely all of them are imported from other countries like China. It is time to get America into the game.

I introduced this bill to help ensure that the United States continues to have access to materials that are essential to technologies we rely upon every day. These materials are also crucial to developing new technologies that will help make us leaders in the clean energy economy of the future, helping to create good jobs here in America.

I also want to note an important distinction from this bill and a bill that passed in the House in the 111th Congress in 2010. There are three big differences: one, this bill does not have any loan guarantees; two, this bill does not spend a single new dollar; and three, this bill does not create a new program. Those are important distinctions from the bill that passed in the 111th Congress.

Many Americans may not realize just how dependent we are upon energy critical elements. One of these elements, No. 3 on the periodic table and represented here on this poster, is lithium. The cell phones, laptops, and other mobile devices upon which we all greatly rely and use--not to mention the energy storage systems for many commercial aircraft--all require lithium to function effectively. To make

these products here in America and not cede leadership across the world, we need to have access to lithium.

We also can't lose sight of how important these elements are in enabling a new era of energy production and use. From advanced solar energy technologies to natural gas and wind turbines, nuclear reactors, and state-of-the-art batteries for electrical and hybrid vehicles, a series of specific elements in limited supply are currently irreplaceable, and we need to ensure continued access to them even as we work to develop substitute materials wherever possible.

It is not just about commercial products and explicit energy production. Rhenium, No. 75 on the periodic table, which is represented here on this poster, is used to make parts for jet engines, including the jets that provide America's air superiority for our Air Force and Navy. Having access to this metal, thus, has an important national security component.

A subset of these critical elements, with names like neodymium and terbium, is what are considered rare earth elements. Incidentally, there is nothing rare about these elements in the sense that they are only found in one or two places in the world but, rather, that, in many instances, they aren't found in sufficient quantities to make them minable and, where they are, doing so would be cost prohibitive and a very long-term endeavor.

As one example, I have a poster here representing terbium, No. 65 on the periodic table. It is a silvery metal. Most people probably have never heard of it, but it is used in high-efficiency lighting and, as exemplified on this poster, in wind turbines, among many other energy uses.

One country, China, has recognized the importance of these rare earth elements, and it has put vast amounts of resources into becoming the world's leading supplier of them. As a result, China is currently responsible for the mining and distribution of 97 percent of rare earth elements. Predictably, China hasn't been shy about using this monopoly as leverage against its international competitors. In fact, just a few years ago, China temporarily cut off rare earth supplies to Japan, the European Union, and the United States, further highlighting the potential consequences of relying so heavily upon a single nation for rare earth production and driving up the costs for American manufacturers.

The bipartisan version that we are discussing here today, H.R. 1022, provides a strong and sustainable path forward for helping ensure that the United States maintains a sufficient, reliable supply of energy critical elements. It explicitly authorizes in law the Critical Materials Energy Innovation Hub--a collaboration among national laboratories, universities, research institutes, and private companies that has been up and running since early last year--and subjects this hub to a rigorous merit review process prior to renewal for an additional 5 years. Essentially, there are tight controls in place to make sure we always have the oversight of this hub.

Let me pause here and emphasize this point as there seems to be some confusion. There are tight controls that will be in place in authorizing this hub. Again, I want to remind the Speaker that there are no new programs, no loan guarantees, and not a new dollar spent.

My bill requires the Department of Energy to develop and regularly update a strategic plan in this area, and it authorizes the hub to maintain a critical materials information center to aid in the collection and dissemination of data to ensure that all of our Nation's researchers in the public and private sectors have access to the most up-to-date information. Finally, my bill charges the National Science and Technology Council with ensuring the appropriate interagency coordination with research activities.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson), the ranking member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Mr. Speaker I will include an article from The Wall Street Journal in support of H.R. 1022 in the Record. This is a December 5, 2013, Wall Street Journal article titled, ``China Still Dominates Rare-Earth Processing.''

[From the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 2013]

China Still Dominates Rare-Earth Processing

(By James T. Areddy)

Shenzhen, China.--When U.S. Rare Earths Inc. begins mining

on the border of Montana and Idaho about two years from now,

the U.S. will gain a new domestic, non-Chinese source of

minerals essential to making electronic devices and weaponry

components.

But at the moment, there's virtually no place for these

minerals to be processed into something useful--except China.

China's share of global rare-earth output has been

shrinking recently as miners elsewhere capitalized on fears

the country controls too much global supply. Even so, China

still dominates the complex--and often polluting--middle

steps that turn mined material into useful ingredients,

including metals and magnets. For example, China supplies

about 80% of the specialized magnets produced with rare-earth

ingredients like neodymium that are used in everything from

elevators to cruise missiles.

``It's amazing people haven't connected these dots,'' said

U.S. Rare Earths Chief Executive Kevin Cassidy. His company

plans to build facilities in the U.S. to handle difficult

middle-stage processes, but that will be expensive and

require numerous regulatory approvals.

Three years ago China shocked high-technology industries by

tightening export controls on a group of 17 elements called

rare earths that sent their prices rising as much as tenfold,

prompting then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to dub

the scare a ``wake up call.''

Miners responded by racing to find new rare-earth sources

in the U.S. and elsewhere. Industry authority Dudley

Kingsnorth says those new sources already cut China's share

of global supply to 86% from 93% between 2011 and 2012.

China's export policies are the subject of a continuing

dispute between Beijing, Washington and others before the

World Trade Organization. The WTO in October ruled illegal

certain restrictions on Chinese rare-earth exports, though

Beijing is expected to appeal the largely symbolic decision.

But when it comes to processing rare earths, China faces

little competition--and Wang Qin's greasy hands illustrate

why. The 45-year-old machinist for Feller Magnets Corp. in

the southern city of Shenzhen runs dozens of machines that

slice magnetic blocks made with rare earth into razor-thin

discs that his company says will be installed in mobile

phones.

While his computerized saws can meet precision

specifications for Feller's high-technology customers, the

machines also slick its factory floors with oil. Basins of

acids and extreme heat feature in other parts of the

facility. The company, which says half its output is sold in

China compared with only 30% in recent years, didn't respond

to a request for comment on factory conditions.

China's dominance in a field with a poor environmental

record illustrates one way it plays key roles more generally

in global manufacturing. China tops world output of chemicals

and fertilizers, as well as making lead-acid batteries and

harvesting of scrap computer parts for metal. Business

executives say that China's backbone in intermediate

industries, including rare-earth processing, allows it to

draw in related businesses that depend on the products and

thereby deepening its importance to production supply chains

from computers to automobiles.

In 2010 Beijing significantly crimped exports of rare-earth

minerals citing environmental reasons to clean up a chaotic

industry. Seeing prices of the elements soar, investors

funded dozens of mine exploration projects around the world.

Since then, a California mine and one in Australia have

ramped up, with others in South Africa, Vietnam, India and

Kazakhstan now in the construction phase, according to Gareth

Hatch, an industry investor and principal at Illinois-based

Technology Metals Research LLC. But he said many prospectors

who rushed after 2010 to bring new supplies to market wrongly

assumed, ``if you build the mine, the downstream supply chain

will magically appear outside of China.''

A number of U.S. defense contractors declined to comment on

industry trends. Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin

Corp. referred questions to the Aerospace Industries

Association, which pointed to a September report from the

U.S. Congressional Research Service that said ``most rare

earth materials' processing is performed in China, giving it

a dominant position that could affect world-wide supply and

prices.''

A Defense Department spokesman said the military

continually monitors the situation while citing an

``increasingly diverse and robust domestic and global supply

chain for rare earth materials.'' A March 2012 military

report highlighted positive trends ``for a market capable of

meeting future U.S. Government demand.''

While Mr. Kingsnorth, executive director of Industrial

Minerals Company of Australia, estimates China's share of

world production could slide to 63% by 2016, he points out

that China continues to dominate the nine steps between

mining rare earths and producing something with the material.

After ore is pried from the ground and unwanted minerals

are sifted away to make a concentrate of minerals, complex

acid and chemical treatments are required to separate

individual rare earths into quantities that are useful. Many

of the 17 rare earths share such similar physical properties

that separating individual elements can require several

months and 1,000 chemical treatments.

Outside China, few places have the industrial capacity to

separate the elements. Companies in the U.S., Russia, France,

Japan and elsewhere handle some of these steps, but China is

the only place that has the industrial capacity to do them

all.

Among those producing fresh output is U.S.-based Molycorp

Inc. Yet Molycorp exports some of the neodymium and samarium

from its giant deposit in California's Mojave Desert to its

processing facilities in China.

``The downstream does take longer to develop,'' says

Constantine Karayannopoulos, who until this month was

Molycorp's interim chief executive officer and is now vice

chairman.

Molycorp said it spent $1.5 billion to build a separation

facility in California, and Mr. Karayannopoulos estimates a

quarter to a third of that cost is related to ensuring the

plant operates to high environmental standards, which include

recycling wastewater. Still, Molycorp says it is cheaper to

make some of its materials at its facilities in China. Mr.

Karayannopoulos also estimates around 60% of that output is

sold to multinational companies already in China.

``I can't overemphasize how complex supply chains are,''

said Mr. Karayannopoulos.

A big effort to reduce China's role in the intermediate

steps of processing rare earths is being undertaken by

Australia's Lynas Corp. with a plant opened last year in

Malaysia to handle separation processes. But local

environmentalists decry the facility as dangerous, and Lynas

says it has processed only a fraction of its output there

this year. Lynas says none of its material is being sent to

China for separation.

Increasingly, China is taking steps to expand into more

profitable aspects of the rare-earth business that follow the

separation processes, instead of exporting those raw

materials. Mr. Kingsnorth likens such efforts to European

winemakers: ``France doesn't sell any grapes,'' he said.

Mr. Speaker, efforts that went into bringing this bill to the floor reflect what our constituents at home want to see from us here in Washington, a bill that was introduced in March of 2013, a bill where revisions were made, compromises were made. The loan guarantee part of the bill was taken out at the request of the majority staff so that we could bring this bill to the floor in a bipartisan way.

I am proud that I can go home and tell my constituents I was able to work with my colleagues on a bill that will advance American innovation, American energy security, and national security.

So, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill. If you want to go home and tell your constituents that you were part of a bipartisan bill that protects American innovation, manufacturing, energy security, and national security, vote for this bill.

If you want to go home and tell your constituents that you are a part of seeing jobs go over to China and ceding leadership in energy, critical elements, then you should vote against this bill.

But I think this Congress wants to take back leadership when it comes to where we get our energy. That is why I am supporting this bill. That is why I am grateful that the chairman brought this bill to the floor, and I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan H.R. 1022.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 5035, a bill to reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson of the Science, Space, and Technology House Committee for their work in advancing innovation and technology that will keep America strong and competitive into the future.

As a senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and former member of the House Committee on Science, where I served for many years, I am well acquainted with the important work done by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

NIST is the nation's premier entity for development of standards that govern the level of reliability, security, and operation of most products sold in the United States and around the world.

Standards development is critical to our nation's leadership in many manufacturing areas. Businesses large and small look to NIST for leadership in coordinating the development of voluntary standards in a wide range of areas that include office equipment, manufacturing materials, and encryption.

Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST's mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

NIST carries out its mission through the following programs through research conducted at:

NIST Laboratories that advance the nation's technology infrastructure and helps U.S. companies continually improve products and services;

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide network of local centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers to help them create and retain jobs; and

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which promote performance excellence among U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational institutions, health care providers, and nonprofit organizations.

Houston benefits from NIST's work in a wide range of areas.

Houston is known as the ``Energy Capital of the World'' with almost half of its economic activity driven by the energy industry. Houston is home to 40 of the nation's 145 publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production firms, including 11 of the top 25 as ranked by 2011 total assets.

NIST's fossil fuel Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) continue to be in high demand by the petroleum industry and the fossil fuel-based electric utility industries.

The fossil fuel SRM program is now 40 years old, and the current inventory of fossil fuel reference materials includes coals, cokes, residual fuel oils, distillates and gasolines.

To support regulatory and industry requirements for reference materials and standards, NIST produces and maintains a large inventory of fossil fuel SRMs that are certified for crude oils, gasolines, fuel oils, and diesel fuels. The program is continually adapting to meet the rapidly changing needs of the energy sector.

Houston's diverse workforce boasts a variety of skills and occupations. From medical professionals and engineers to production managers and accountants, Houston's labor force fills 2.7 million jobs and counting.

Houston has a world class medical center that serves the health care needs of residents and brings to our city people from around the world for health care.

NIST is responsible for leading the development of the core health IT testing infrastructure that will provide a scalable, multi-partner, automated, remote capability for current and future medical technology testing needs.

The objective of the NIST Health IT Testing Infrastructure Project is to harmonize the efforts of healthcare standards test development and delivery to meet the demands for conformance and interoperability within the healthcare domain.

NIST works in collaboration with health care providers, IT stakeholders such as vendors, implementers, standards organizations and certification bodies to establish a testing infrastructure that will:

Provide a variety of testing services;

Support a broad range of test environments;

Support numerous health data standards;

Provide a component-based user interface;

Support changing user requirements;

Leverage existing testing initiatives;

Provide a method for feedback so that health standards can be improved; and

Roll out tools and resources incrementally.

Houston also hosts universities, research institutions and agencies that rely upon NIST's core areas of work including:

Bioscience Health;

Building and Fire Research;

Chemistry;

Electronics & Communications;

Energy;

Environment and Climate;

Information Technology;

Manufacturing;

Mathematics;

Nanotechnology;

Neuro Research; and

Physics.

NIST's work touches the lives of every person in the United States from the smart electric power grid and electronic health records to atomic clocks, advanced nanomaterials, and computer chips, innumerable products and services rely in some way on the work of this small agency.

I ask that my colleagues join me in support this reauthorization of NIST and that we work together to end the impact on Sequestration on NIST programs.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1022) to develop an energy critical elements program, to amend the National Materials and Minerals Policy, Research and Development Act of 1980, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 1022, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 1022, the Securing Energy Critical Elements and American Jobs Act of 2014, addresses the supply of energy critical elements in the United States.

I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell), the ranking member of the Energy Subcommittee, for his diligent work on this legislation.

I also want to thank Mr. Hultgren, who introduced his own critical elements bill in the last Congress, for his initiative on this subject.

Energy critical elements are important to energy-related technologies, communications technologies, and America's weapons systems. These technologies range from photovoltaic cells and fluorescent lighting to fiber optics, aircraft engines and turbines, computers, and electric vehicles. Energy critical elements encompass a broad set of the elements, including rare earth elements.

Growth in demand for rare earths in a volatile market warrants particular attention and concern. China currently produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earths. This is a result of a deliberate and decades-long strategy to develop its geologic reserves, undercut market prices, and drive out competition. Testimony before the Science, Space, and Technology Committee indicated that China has manipulated the market in recent years. It has reduced its export quotas and increased levies on rare earth oxides. This has caused wild price swings, market instability, and supply uncertainty.

This behavior is a potential threat to the United States' ability to acquire many rare earths that both our energy sector and military rely upon. While a responsive market will continue to move towards solutions, there are reasonable and proper steps that the Federal Government can and should pursue in this area. These are reflected in this bipartisan bill.

This bill establishes a program under the Department of Energy that supports activities to improve the methods of extraction, use, and recycling of energy critical elements. It improves the understanding of performance, processing, and adaptability in the engineering of these elements, and it identifies and tests alternative materials that could replace energy critical elements. However, the legislation stipulates that the program shall only focus on areas where the private sector is unlikely to undertake these activities because of technical or financial uncertainty.

It also authorizes the Secretary of Energy to establish a Critical Materials Energy Innovation Hub that maintains a critical materials information center. This center collects, stores, and disseminates information on energy critical elements for scientists and researchers. In carrying out this program, the Secretary is directed to ensure that the activities are coordinated and do not duplicate other programs within the Federal Government.

Finally, the legislation requires the President, through the National Science and Technology Council, to coordinate the actions of involved Federal agencies. The administration also will identify and monitor the supply of energy critical elements, encourage private sector development, and promote the recycling of these elements.

This bill helps ensure that the United States remains globally and economically competitive and that our energy sector and military have the critical elements that they need.

Once again, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren) for their efforts on this legislation.

I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, there are no other individuals on this side who wish to speak on this bill, so I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, before I yield back, I would like to

thank the gentlewoman from Texas, the ranking member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, for the comments that she just made. They are much appreciated.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time, but I am prepared to yield back.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1022 and two other Science, Space, and Technology bills being considered today.

Earlier this year, all of my Democratic committee colleagues joined me in introducing H.R. 4159, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2014. Two of the bills being considered today are similar or identical to provisions we included in our COMPETES bill, and the third bill similarly reflects a longstanding bipartisan effort, and I will speak briefly about each of the three bills.

First, I would like to speak in support of H.R. 1022, a bill that would authorize a research and development program to explore ways to sustain our supply of materials that is critical to a wide range of advanced energy technologies.

According to a recent study by the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society, the U.S. is currently dependent on other countries for more than 90 percent of most of these types of materials. We are particularly dependent on China, which has demonstrated a willingness to at least temporarily cut off our supply of these energy critical elements in the recent past, so this bill is a timely contribution to our national, economic, and energy security.

I would like to thank my colleague and friend, Mr. Swalwell, for introducing this important piece of legislation, as well as Chairman Smith and his staff for working diligently with us to bring it to the floor today.

Next, I want to thank Mr. Bucshon for introducing H.R. 5035, a bill to reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIST is our Nation's oldest science agency and plays a very important role in U.S. innovation and competitiveness through advancing measurement science and providing unique measurement facilities to industry.

While we don't often think about measurement science, it is critically important. Anytime a technology is developed, measurement science is needed to ensure that the technology is working as intended and is compatible with existing systems. NIST plays a role in fields from bioscience to forensics to automobile safety technology.

NIST has also taken leadership roles in crosscutting Federal efforts in cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing.

H.R. 5035 reauthorizes and makes important updates to the program at NIST, including the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which helps small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies create and retain American jobs.

My one concern with H.R. 5035 is the low authorization level. I hope that when this bill goes to conference with the Senate we can agree to give NIST an authorization level that allows it to fully realize its critical role in U.S. innovation and competitiveness. In the meantime, because the policy changes in this bill are good and important, I support it.

Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Hultgren and Mr. Kilmer for introducing H.R. 5120, a bill to provide important new tools to accelerate commercialization of new technologies developed by DOE laboratories and programs in partnership with the private sector.

This bill closely mirrors several critical provisions in the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2014, as well as the Senate's bipartisan America INNOVATES Act sponsored by Senators Coons and Rubio.

It also reflects a number of recommendations found in a recent report produced by the Center for American Progress, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and The Heritage Foundation, three groups that you don't often find in the same line of authors.

I want to thank Chairman Smith and many other colleagues on both sides of the aisle, as well as the other side of the Capitol, for working with us to produce a strong bill that we can support. All three of these bills are products of strong bipartisan efforts, and I urge my colleagues to support them.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5035, legislation that would reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also known as NIST.

NIST, founded in 1901, is a nonregulatory Federal agency within the Department of Commerce. Its mission is to promote U.S. innovation and competitiveness by advancing measurement science.

H.R. 5035 makes important changes and updates to NIST programs, including the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, or MEP, program. MEP centers work with small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers and help them create and retain jobs, increase profits, and save money.

In my district, the 15th Congressional District of California, the California MEP center helped Plastikon, a plastic and contract manufacturing company that provides service to medical, automotive, and electronics industries, revisit its business model after one of its largest customers shut down. The MEP center supported market research, strategic planning and training, and lean manufacturing for Plastikon. The project increased the company sales by 20 percent.

The MEP program has proven to be a very successful public-private partnership for districts across the country. For every dollar of investment, the MEP program generates almost $19 in new sales and $21 in new client investment. This totals more than $2 billion in new sales every year.

H.R. 5035 helps ensure that the MEP program will continue partnering with the full range of small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies, helping them to innovate and create jobs here in America.

I was pleased that when this bill was considered as a section of the FIRST Act in the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, we worked in a bipartisan manner to make improvements to it. That section, as improved, is what we are considering today as a stand-alone bill. I appreciate the majority working with us in this new way.

Although I support the important policy provisions contained in this bill, I am also a little disappointed by the low authorization level. NIST is the one of our Nation's most important, yet least known, agencies. Because of its unrivaled expertise in measurement science, its unique research facilities, and its strong industry partnerships, NIST has been asked by Congress and by one administration after another to take on leadership roles in a number of crosscutting Federal efforts, from cybersecurity to advanced manufacturing.

To adequately support their mission and work in these critical areas, the authorization level for NIST should be closer to the President's fiscal year 2015 budget request and the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations fiscal year 2015 bill. My hope is that when this bill goes to conference with the Senate we can work on a higher authorization level for NIST.

That said, H.R. 5035 is an important bill that contains sound policy provisions that were developed, again, on a bipartisan basis and that will help ensure NIST's ability to promote U.S. innovation and competitiveness.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.