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            Young is the Ranking Member on the Natural Resources Committee which has primary jurisdiction over the legislation.

            “The U.S. mining industry would be decimated by the provisions of this ill-conceived legislation,” Young said.  “Existing mines on federal lands would be forced to close prematurely and there would be no future investments for new areas that contain important minerals for our nation.

            “This bill will destroy the American mining industry and the thousands of good-paying jobs it provides and force our nation to increasingly rely solely on foreign imports.  The U.S. hardrock mining industry currently employs or supports around 170,000 high-wage jobs paying more than $7 billion annually in wages and salaries.

            “The industry itself contributes more than $2.3 billion in personal income and payroll taxes each year.

“This bill will devastate the industry and will be bad for our economy and will dramatically increase our dependence on foreign minerals.  In just the past 10 years, our dependence on foreign minerals has doubled and this will make the situation much worse.

            “In addition, this anti-mining bill will substantially increase the cost of goods for American consumers.  Plain and simple, this is a bad bill for American workers and consumers in all regions of the country.

            “Alaska has the largest silver producing mine in the nation and the largest zinc mine in the world.  Alaska is also rich with copper and other important minerals.  Unfortunately, many of these valuable minerals would be locked up if the Rahall anti-mining bill were to become law and some operating mines may be forced to close prematurely leaving valuable resources in the ground.   Domestic production would significantly decline and mining companies will take their investment dollars overseas where they can operate at a profit.   This bill will eliminate high-paying family-wage jobs, reduce revenues to the Federal and State treasuries, and increase our trade imbalance and reliance on foreign imports.

“Today we are 100 percent import-dependent on 17 critical non-fuel minerals and more than 50 percent import dependent on another 28 non-fuel minerals.  Twenty years ago we were 100 percent import dependent for five non-fuel mineral and more than 50 percent dependent on 16 non-fuel minerals.  H.R. 2262 is bad policy.

            “For these reasons, this longstanding effort to eliminate mining in the United States has never become law.  However, this bill is a priority for the Democratic Majority and America’s mining industry is on the threatened species list heading for extinction.”

For more information, access the Committee on Natural Resources’ Minority website at:

http://republicans.resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.shtml

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