METALS Act

Materials Essential To American Leadership and Security Act or the METALS Act

This bill establishes the Strategic Materials Investment Fund. The Administrator of the Defense Logistics Agency Strategic Materials may make expenditures from the fund to develop the domestic strategic and critical materials industrial base, including by making interest-free, five-year loans to domestic producers of such materials and by reimbursing original equipment manufacturers for the increased costs of purchasing such materials produced in the United States.

A domestic producer of such materials shall not be eligible to receive a loan if such producer: (1) is carrying out an activity to develop technologies that would decrease the capacity of the domestic industrial base for such materials or to redesign technologies to reduce the use of such materials in such technologies, (2) has a history of financial insolvency or bankruptcy, or (3) is controlled by or acting on behalf of the People's Republic of China or the Russian Federation.

One-tenth of 1% of the amounts appropriated for all major defense acquisition programs for the development or procurement of aircraft or missiles, taken from funds allocated for internal administration, shall be deposited to the fund.

The Department of Defense (DOD) shall: (1) assess the ability of thorium-fueled nuclear reactors to meet the power generation needs of the Navy; and (2) ensure that any ammonium perchlorate that is incorporated into any item procured by DOD or used to launch a national security payload into space is obtained from sources inside the United States, subject to a national security waiver.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States shall not approve any foreign government-controlled transaction relating to a domestic rare earth facility: (1) if a party to such transaction is controlled by or acting on behalf of China or Russia, and (2) without certifying that the transaction does not violate such prohibition and otherwise will not compromise U.S. national security.