Congresswoman McCollum Speaks Against Boundary Waters Mining Lease Renewal

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-05

[00:00:00]Uh, chair.

[00:00:02]I rise in support of this amendment which would strike, as been pointed out, all these partisan riders, including a rider to reinstate mineral leases in the Superior National Forest.

[00:00:13]This is substituting partisan politics for science-based decision-making. This rider allows for foreign-owned mining conglomerate to pursue the interest over the demonstrated need to protect a priceless reserve of clean water. What's even worse is it takes away the ability for the courts to review the leases. The rider removes the checks and balances that are essential to the functioning of our democracy. I want my colleagues to think about this implication for a minute. It may benefit you this time to sweep aside statutory process and remove accountability to get the outcome you want, but is that the precedent that we really want to set here in this committee?

[00:00:54]I'm meeting in my office in Rayburn in 2016 with Antofagasta, which is the sub uh subcontractors Twin Metals.

[00:01:03]Um, when we were talking, they told me that they needed these leases, that they purchased these leases to be renewed in the exact same terms as the 1960s.

[00:01:14]Conversation in uh 2016, they want the 1960s leases. Why? Because it made it profitable for them.

[00:01:23]These leases were granted prior to the passage of NEPA and prior to the designation of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area.

[00:01:32]Antofagasta knew full well when they purchased these leases that they were expiring. So, after purchasing the leases, they began conducting a pressure campaign here in Washington to get a sweetheart deal, yes, to renew the leases.

[00:01:46]With the same royalties and without any additional oversight. That's what they told me. I heard it with my own ears.

[00:01:54]They didn't want to comply with any of the environmental laws that have been passed since then, like the 1972 Clean Water Act. They wanted an exemption from that.

[00:02:04]And if a company has spent at least $6 million lobbying Congress and the White House to get the deal that they want.

[00:02:11]Now, I told them that they would still, and they should, go through the needed necessary oversight to review and renew these leases.

[00:02:19]And they told me, "That just doesn't work for our business model."

[00:02:23]Well, my job is to get the best deal for the American public.

[00:02:27]It's not for corporations to benefit from partisan writers in this bill. It's not in the interest of the United States of America. It's not in the interest of the tribes who have called the interconnected waterways of the Boundary Waters home for centuries. It's not in the interest of the plants and animals that habitat the area.

[00:02:47]This is an area, which you've heard me say before, has 20% of the freshest water in the US Forest Service.

[00:02:54]To be clear, it's not even in our domestic critical mineral supply chain that would benefit from reinstating these leases.

[00:03:05]And why do I know this? Because Antofagasta is a Chilean mining company that owns Twin Metals.

[00:03:12]They will not keep the ore extracted from this mine here in the United States. Here's what Antofagasta does.

[00:03:19]Listen closely to this copper that they extract. They send it to China.

[00:03:25]China smelts it, sells it on the open market, or uses it to build their own defense weapons. Antofagasta has contracts with state-owned Chinese smelting companies to process their copper for free. Another sweetheart deal for Antofagasta. Make no mistake, copper mined in the Boundary Waters will be exported directly to the hands of our global competitor and pure rival.

[00:03:51]Selling off our resources only benefits Chilean billionaires and Chinese economy.

[00:03:58]And the American taxpayers will foot the bill for cleaning up, yes, poison, sulfide toxic mine waste left over by Antofagasta and Twin Metals and all their mines fail.

[00:04:09]And we will be cleaning up, our taxpayers, places like the Boundary Waters, Voyageurs National Park in the entire Rainy River watershed.

[00:04:17]So, bottom line, this is a bad deal for the American taxpayer to have the leases as in here.

[00:04:24]So, I ask my colleagues to consider um supporting this amendment. And I'm really going to work hard in the upcoming um uh weeks and months to at least get this rider removed because I think, after hearing me, it makes no sense to put our waters at risk for the benefit of a Chilean billionaires and the peer rival we have, our economic rival China. With that, I yield back.

[00:04:53]>> Thanks to gentle lady for her comments.

[00:04:55]Gentle lady from Wisconsin.