Rep. Stefanik Calls For DOD To Kick Off Critical Mineral Policy

Commentary from Stephanie Barna was included in a recent Law360 piece covering congressional reactions to a provision of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act  (NDAA) that provides the Defense Department with multi-year—as opposed to annual—ability to purchase rare-earth elements that are processed in the U.S. A Covington blog post co-authored by Stephanie is cited in the article.

They write that “the war in Ukraine spurred congressional, DoD, and industry interest in the use of multi-year contracting for munitions” and added that “Congress seems to perceive that a similar grant of multi-year procurement authority for domestic [rare-earth elements] could galvanize the nascent domestic processing industry and better sustain the U.S. [rare-earth element] stockpile.”