Advanced Technologies: Strengthened Federal Approach Needed to Help Identify and Mitigate Supply Risks for Critical Raw Materials
Highlights
What GAO Found
Federal agencies are primarily focused on two areas of activity related to critical materials supply—assessing risk and supporting research. For example, the Department of Energy (DOE) has conducted two criticality assessments on materials important to clean energy applications and manages the Critical Materials Institute—a 5-year, $120 million investment aimed at mitigating risks by diversifying supply, providing alternatives to existing materials, and improving recycling and reuse. In addition, agencies conduct a range of other critical materials related activities, including stockpiling or producing materials, and reviewing and approving resource extraction projects, among other efforts.
The federal approach to addressing critical materials supply has areas of strength but is not consistent with selected key practices for interagency collaboration and faces other limitations, as shown below.
Selected Strengths and Limitations of Federal Critical Materials Activities
According to its charter, the Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains (Subcommittee)—co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), DOE, and the Department of the Interior—is to facilitate a strong, coordinated effort across its member agencies on critical materials activities. However, the Subcommittee's efforts have not been consistent with selected key practices for interagency collaboration, including agreeing on roles and responsibilities; establishing mutually reinforcing or joint strategies; and developing mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on results. For example, some member agencies do not have a clear role in the Subcommittee's efforts and have had limited or no involvement in its work. By taking steps to actively engage all member agencies in its efforts and clearly define roles and responsibilities, the Subcommittee would have more reasonable assurance that it can effectively marshal the potential contributions of all member agencies to help identify and mitigate critical materials supply risks.
Other limitations to the federal approach to addressing critical materials supply include limited engagement with industry and a limited focus on domestic production. For example, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) is required by law to identify and assess cases of materials needs. However, Commerce does not solicit information from stakeholders across a range of industrial sectors. As a result, Commerce may not have comprehensive, current information across a range of industrial sectors to help it identify and assess materials needs.
Why GAO Did This Study
Certain metals, minerals, and other “critical” raw materials play an important role in the production of advanced technologies across a range of industrial sectors and defense applications. Recently, concentration of the supply of some critical materials under foreign control has renewed questions about the U.S. government's and industry's ability to address potential supply disruptions.
GAO was asked to examine U.S. efforts to identify and strategically plan for critical materials supply issues. Among other objectives, this report (1) describes federal agencies' activities related to the supply of critical materials and (2) evaluates the federal government's approach to addressing critical materials supply issues. GAO reviewed relevant laws, agency documents, and academic studies; interviewed federal officials; and conducted a two-stage web-based survey of a nongeneralizable sample of critical materials experts selected to cover a range of subject matter areas.
Recommendations
GAO is making six recommendations, including that OSTP take steps to improve interagency collaboration by, for example, defining Subcommittee member roles and responsibilities and that Commerce engage with stakeholders to continually identify and assess critical materials needs across industrial sectors. Commerce agreed. OSTP agreed with one and neither agreed nor disagreed with the other four recommendations but discussed how roles and responsibilities are defined, among other things. GAO continues to believe these steps are needed, as discussed in the report.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Commerce | To fulfill the role assigned to it under the 1980 Act, the Secretary of Commerce should engage with industry stakeholders and continually identify and assess critical materials needs across a broad range of industrial sectors. | Through the completed and planned sectoral supply chain assessment under Executive Order 14017, Commerce and other federal agencies are engaging with industry stakeholders to continually identify and assess critical materials needs across a broad range of industrial sectors. Executive Order 14017 on America's Supply Chains required the Secretary of Commerce, along with the Secretaries of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Energy, and Transportation, to submit sectoral supply chain assessments that included a review of the critical raw materials underlying the supply chain. The assessments were divided to cover six different industrial bases: defense, public health and... biological preparedness, information and communications technology, energy sector, transportation, and agricultural commodities and food products. Commerce was tasked with leading the assessment for the information and communications technology industrial base, with the other federal agencies listed above covering the other assessments. The Executive Order required the agencies to consult with outside stakeholders, such as those in industry, as appropriate. In February 2022, the agencies issued the sectoral supply chain assessments called for under the Executive Order. The executive summary for those assessments points to the agencies' engagement with industry in conducting the analyses and to agencies' plans to continue working with industry to build supply chain resilience. The Executive Order also recommended a quadrennial assessment of the same industrial bases, due in 2025, which will be part of agencies' work going forward. While these actions are not exclusively being led or implemented by the Secretary of Commerce, they address the intent of our recommendation by increasing engagement between the federal government and industry stakeholders.
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| Office of Science and Technology Policy | To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal agencies to carry out the national materials policy outlined in the 1980 Act, and to strengthen the federal approach to addressing critical materials supply issues through enhanced interagency collaboration, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, working with the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains and agency leadership, as appropriate, should agree on and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of member agencies and take steps to actively engage all relevant federal agencies in the Subcommittee's efforts. | The National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains (now the Subcommittee on Critical Minerals) has taken steps to actively engage all relevant federal agencies in the Subcommittee's efforts and has clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of member agencies, as GAO recommended in September 2016. In November 2017, OSTP provided information indicating that on September 27, 2017, a total of 13 different agencies and subcomponents participated in a Subcommittee meeting, including the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, which GAO identified in its September 2016 report as not...
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| Office of Science and Technology Policy | To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal agencies to carry out the national materials policy outlined in the 1980 Act, and to strengthen the federal approach to addressing critical materials supply issues through enhanced interagency collaboration, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, working with the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains and agency leadership, as appropriate, should develop joint strategies that articulate common outcomes and identify contributing agencies' efforts. | As of June 2019, the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains (now the Subcommittee on Critical Minerals) had implemented GAO's September 2016 recommendation to develop joint strategies that articulate common outcomes and identify contributing agencies' efforts. The interagency strategy entitled "A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals" articulates a series of common outcomes for the Subcommittee member agencies through its statement of 24 goals. Each goal is supported by a number of recommendations that identify the efforts of the contributing agencies. This articulation of common...
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| Office of Science and Technology Policy | To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal agencies to carry out the national materials policy outlined in the 1980 Act, and to strengthen the federal approach to addressing critical materials supply issues through enhanced interagency collaboration, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, working with the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains and agency leadership, as appropriate, should develop a mechanism to monitor, evaluate, and periodically report on the progress of member agencies' efforts. | As of June 2019, the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains (now the Subcommittee on Critical Minerals) had implemented GAO's September 2016 recommendation to develop a mechanism to monitor, evaluate, and periodically report on the progress of member agencies' efforts. The interagency strategy entitled "A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals" states that the strategy should be evaluated 5 years after issuance to determine the efficacy of the recommendations. Some of the strategy's recommendations also call for the relevant member agencies to provide periodic status updates to the...
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| Office of Science and Technology Policy |
Priority Rec.
To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal agencies to carry out the national materials policy outlined in the 1980 Act, and to broaden future applications of the early warning screening methodology, the Subcommittee should take the steps necessary to include potentially critical materials beyond minerals, such as developing a plan or strategy for prioritizing additional materials for which actions are needed to address data limitations. |
In September 2017, OSTP provided updated information on its efforts to implement recommendations from GAO-16-699. OSTP stated that "the Subcommittee shares GAO's interest in improving data availability and granularity. However, in some cases, private entities and foreign governments may be unwilling or unable to provide (or even collect) such data. Additionally, the Subcommittee member agencies' financial and personnel resources are limited, and significant additional resources would be required to prioritize and pursue the data for additional materials and critical materials beyond minerals. Without the appropriation of additional resources, the Subcommittee's work on these additional...
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| Office of Science and Technology Policy | To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal agencies to carry out the national materials policy outlined in the 1980 Act, and to enhance the federal government's ability to facilitate domestic production of critical materials, the Subcommittee should examine approaches other countries or regions are taking to see if there are any lessons learned that can be applied to the United States. | The National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains (now the Subcommittee on Critical Minerals) has taken steps to examine the approaches of other countries or regions to find lessons learned that can be applied to the United States, as GAO recommended in September 2016. In February 2017, OSTP provided information on efforts to implement recommendations from GAO-16-699. OSTP stated that it concurred with the recommendation that the Subcommittee should examine approaches other countries or regions are taking to see if there are any lessons learned that can be applied to the United States. OSTP stated that the Subcommittee was sharing...
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