Spent Petroleum Catalyst Recycling and Critical Minerals and Metals Recovery Exemption Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 7523 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7523 To ensure domestic sources of the critical mineral vanadium necessary for the steel, infrastructure, energy, and defense needs of the United States, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 12, 2026 Mr. Balderson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To ensure domestic sources of the critical mineral vanadium necessary for the steel, infrastructure, energy, and defense needs of the United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Spent Petroleum Catalyst Recycling and Critical Minerals and Metals Recovery Exemption Act''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) In accordance with Executive Order 14272 (90 Fed. Reg. 16437; relating to ensuring national security and economic resilience through section 232 actions on processed critical minerals and derivative products), it is vital to maintain a supply of critical minerals for the domestic manufacturing and defense industries to protect the United States from strategic supply-chain threats of foreign economic and military enemies, such as China and Russia. Vanadium, a critical mineral, can be obtained domestically from recycling spent petroleum catalyst to produce ferrovanadium--a critical component in high-strength steel used across the United States steel, defense, infrastructure, and energy sectors--thereby reducing dependence on foreign sources, such as China and Russia. (2) Units that recover vanadium and other metals and critical minerals from spent petroleum cataly