The cotton bill would accelerate the exploitation of the United States to counter the mineral domination of China

First on Fox: A republican of the Senate wants to give the United States one step ahead in his race against China and to make the nation of his dependence on imports of key materials necessary for weapons systems.

Senator Tom CottonR-Ark., Wish to accelerate the harvesting of raw materials in the United States necessary for the defensive capacities of the country, and plans to blow out federal and judicial administrative formalities to do so.

Cotton plans to introduce legislation that would allow critical mineral projects deemed necessary to strengthen the country’s military and defensive preparation by the defense secretary Pete Hegseth to bypass environmental laws and the possible blockages of the courts.

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Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., President of the Senate Republican Conference, strives to resume the extraction of gross minerals in the United States necessary for the development of weapons. (Getty Images)

Its bill is designed to give the United States an advantage against China, the world’s largest producer of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, graphite and other rare land minerals used in weapons systems, electric vehicles and consumer electronics.

Currently, China produces around 60% of the critical mineral supply of the world and processes up to 90%.

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“Current environmental laws put our will to counter communist China in danger and waste the dollars of taxpayers on projects that are triggered and die on the vineyard,” Cotton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This bill will create jobs, better arm and prepare our soldiers, and will spend the dollars of taxpayers more effectively.”

The Cotton bill, nicknamed the environmental exemptions necessary for the Defense Law, would create an exemption for mining activities and projects related to the fight against China and to allow the Pentagon to “operate with maximum agility and efficiency to ensure that it is ready to dissuade and, if necessary, to fight and contain a conflict with the Chinese Communist Party” Fox News Digital.

Among the regulations and environmental examination standards that could be bypassed with the renunciation are the national law on environmental policy, the endangered species law, the law on the protection of marine mammals and the federal law on the control of water pollution.

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The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, poses a question of a journalist at a press conference in the Pentagon on June 22, 2025. (Images Andrew Harnik / Getty)

Cotton argued in its legislation that the above -mentioned regulations “frequently and unnecessarily delay” the preparation of soldiers without “substantial advantage for the environment or protected species”, and this time is petrol regarding national defense.

The projects that would come from the aegis of the regulatory exemption include the tests, the production and deployment of technologies, systems or equipment as well as the construction, maintenance, expansion or repair of facilities or the infrastructure of the Department of Defense, among others.

This would also prevent projects from being groaned before the courts, as long as the initiative is deemed necessary for military preparation by the Secretary of Defense.

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The bill is part of the wider plan of the White House to revive the extraction of critical minerals in the country, whether through executive action, an attempt to buy Greenland, a mineral agreement with Ukraine, or to open more offshore extraction in the Gulf of America.

This also occurs after President Donald Trump has entered into an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to resume trade in critical minerals after the expeditions were arrested earlier this year after the entertainment of China prices and other White House countries.