Congressman Mike Simpson Discusses the Growing Risks of Relying on Foreign Countries for Critical Resources

Congressman Mike Simpson discusses the growing risks of relying on foreign countries, particularly China, Russia, and Iran, for critical resources like minerals and medical supplies. He emphasizes that these countries pose significant threats, especially when it comes to essential materials like uranium, which is crucial for nuclear energy and weapons. While the U.S. has these resources domestically, the lengthy permitting process for extraction on public lands has led to continued dependence on foreign imports. Simpson highlights that there is bipartisan support in Congress to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains and focus on accessing domestic resources, a priority that the Trump administration also pursued.

Transcripts:

Sam Stone: We're continuing on now with our interview with Congressman Mike Simpson. He is... A friend of the program but also serving now his 14th term. That is a long time. You've seen a lot of changes. One of those changes has been how we view where our critical resources in this country come from. 14 years ago, we weren't in the kind of pickle we are now where a lot of critical resources are coming from overseas. Congressman, how much does the influence of countries like China, Russia, Iran around the globe on these critical mineral supply chains put America at risk right now?

Mike Simpson: I think it's one of the greatest existential threats this country faces because most of the critical minerals and precursors for drugs and those types of things we get from countries that don't really like us. I don't want to be dependent on China and have them be able to cut off our medical supplies, which was threatened during the COVID epidemic and stuff.

And I think people were surprised at how reliant we are on some of these foreign countries for these things. In terms of critical minerals, You know, it's interesting. We get most of them from overseas, but we have them here in this country. The problem is getting to them. They're on public lands.

And again, we're back to permitting and development of those resources. It takes so long that we just bought them from overseas. Most of our uranium comes from Russia. That's our nuclear reactors, our nuclear weapons, other things. You need uranium. We've got it here in this country, and we ought to be able to get to it.

So that's one of the things that I think I've been focused on for the last 10 years or so. Now I think a majority of members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, say we've got to break this supply chain. We can't rely on foreign countries. And that's one of the real important things that Trump, his administration,

is going after, is trying to... not rely on other countries for things we have in this country.

Chuck Warren: Isn't there a bunch of uranium down in southern Utah?

Sam Stone: Northern Arizona.

Mike Simpson: There's uranium down in southern Utah and a couple other places in this country, but we don't get a lot of our uranium from there.

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