00:00I now recognize the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Moore, who's also the former
00:05Speaker of the House of the State of North Carolina's House of Representatives.
00:11Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for hosting us here. This has been an incredible visit,
00:16and this is an absolutely amazing facility, an amazing base. I'll tell you, with the continued
00:22consolidation of our domestic industrial base, it seems to me more important than ever to
00:28recognize and support the critical role of our existing industry. Like back home in North
00:32Carolina, for example, we have a lot of companies that contribute greatly to the supply chain when
00:39it comes to national defense. In Shelby, which is actually my home county, we actually have one of
00:45the very few copper smelting and refining facilities in the United States. There's talk about the
00:51availability of rare earth minerals, but you also have to have the capability to produce those,
00:57and so they actually have a facility that produces 100 percent of copper, pure copper from copper
01:02scrap. And the Department of Defense, of course, has identified high purity copper as a strategic
01:07metal essential to our national security. So Dr. Wormsby, with copper being DOD's second most
01:13utilized material, which China, though, currently controls, as I understand, 50 percent of the
01:19global smelting capacity, what are the national security consequences when our domestic smelting
01:24and refining capabilities lack behind those of our global competitors?
01:30Sir, thank you for the question. I think you're hitting on the critical issue, honestly, that
01:36Mr. Frankston brought up early on about the priority for critical chemicals, critical minerals,
01:42critical materials. We are seeing a number of issues exactly like the one that you bring up
01:50in our supply chains, particularly down very far into the supply chains, often at levels below where
02:01our prime contractors would even recognize that there is an issue that they can't get that specific
02:07material that is necessary for our weapon systems. And that's where the priority on the critical
02:15level, chemicals, minerals, materials, really plays into our strategy here and where we're investing,
02:22because it is a big issue for the department. So how would you say, you know, export restrictions
02:27by other nations affect the ability to refine and produce copper in the U.S.?
02:32Sir, it's obviously a major issue for us. And to the point, it's not just about getting the materials
02:43that we need. It's also about being able to process them, right? And that's why we have such a priority
02:49on this investment.
02:50So let's say if another nation were to manipulate global prices, what actions could the DOD take to
02:58safeguard domestic manufacturing?
03:02Sir, thank you for the question. Would you like to take it or would you like me to answer, sir?
03:06So thank you very much. I'm happy to help. So as Dr. Ormsby noted, it's not just at the mine itself.
03:14It's not just at the processing itself. It's across the entire supply chain for critical minerals and
03:19materials. And China has absolutely been manipulating the market, has been placing export controls. And so
03:26that is one of the reasons why we've placed such a high priority. It's why one of the earliest executive
03:31orders from this administration was on critical minerals. It's why we have a presidential determination,
03:37a waiver to be able to use DPA for critical minerals and materials across the entire supply chain so that
03:43we can rebuild or reinforce our domestic capability and capacity. Or in the case of so for the mines
03:52itself and where these minerals are coming out of the earth, geography matters. And some of this isn't
03:56just always not available in the U.S. And so that's why it's leveraging key partners and allies that
04:02we can utilize certainly at the mine level, but then build the processing and the supply chain
04:06capabilities internal to the U.S.
04:09And to that point, even beyond metals, I think it's equally important that we be able to identify,
04:14for example, and be able to source textiles, you know, that you don't think of textiles a lot of
04:19time when you're just talking about national defense, but the ability to have the proper uniforms,
04:24the proper material for our fighting men and women is critical. And of course, the Berry Amendment
04:31requires the DOD to procure textile and clothing products made with nearly 100 percent U.S. content.
04:37It ensures a stable domestic supply chain that will protect us from other nations that seek to
04:42manipulate it. So I guess it's kind of a softball question here, but how does maintaining, how important
04:48is maintaining an independent domestic textile supply chain improve the resiliency in the event
04:54of a near-peer conflict? And either of you want to take it? Thank you for the question. It's
04:58absolutely critical. It's not just in clothing. Those textiles and materials go into our weapon
05:03systems themselves too. So we need to have that domestic capability. And we're very proud in North
05:09Carolina to have a significant production capacity of textiles. So I won't start the fight about being
05:17the home of flight since we're in Ohio right now, but we do have some textiles. I think the
05:24gentleman, we'll go ahead and start our second panel on that.
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