Critical Materials Future Act of 2025

This bill establishes a pilot program within the Department of Energy to support domestic processing of critical materials using innovative financial tools, aiming to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities and enhance energy and national security.

Sec. 2, Definitions: Defines key terms including 'critical material' (as in the Energy Act of 2020), 'country of risk' and 'entity of concern' (as in the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act, plus entities controlled by foreign nations with misaligned strategic interests), 'domestic' (U.S. and territories), 'eligible project' (refining, processing, or recycling raw critical materials into purified forms for first use), 'innovative financial tools' (e.g., contracts for difference, price floors, advanced market commitments, forward contracts, and other transactions under DOE authority), 'reliable source' (countries with U.S. free trade agreements or major non-NATO allies), and 'Secretary' (Secretary of Energy).

Sec. 3, Purposes: The bill aims to support domestic critical material processing with innovative financial tools to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities and enhance energy and national security, and to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools in supporting investment, expanding processing, and fostering more liquid, transparent, and predictable markets.

Sec. 4, Domestic Critical Material Processing Pilot Program: The Secretary must establish a pilot program within 180 days to support at least 3 domestic critical material processing projects. Objectives include providing financial stability, attracting private investment, analyzing how different financial tools affect markets and projects, and reducing supply chain vulnerabilities. The Secretary must issue regulations within 180 days, may use other transaction authority and flexible hiring, and consult stakeholders. The program must support at least 3 different critical materials, with no single material receiving over 50% of funding. The program terminates within 5 years. Applications are reviewed based on security, economic competitiveness, sustainability, risk mitigation, and priority for projects using domestic or reliable feedstock and securing offtake agreements. The Secretary must select projects within 1 year and coordinate with multiple agencies, including Defense for insights from DARPA's Open Price Exploration program. A study must be published within 2 years after program termination on the impact of financial tools, supply chain needs, recycling potential, program effectiveness, and DARPA models. Annual reports must be submitted to specified congressional committees. The Secretary may use innovative financial tools, including price support and leverage functions. A Critical Materials Revolving Fund is established in the Treasury to reinvest revenues from eligible projects. $750,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated, to remain available until expended.