The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to mark up several important national security bills on Wednesday, May 13.
Markup at a Glance
Legislation FDD Action Endorses
FDD Action supports the following five measures and urges a “Yes” vote on each.
- ✔Developing Overseas Mineral Investments and New Allied Networks for Critical Energies (DOMINANCE) Act (H.R. 7037) — Led by Reps. Young Kim (R-CA) and Ami Bera (D-CA), this act gives the federal government vital tools to break the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) grip on global critical mineral and strategic energy supply chains. The bill codifies the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE), the successor to the Mineral Security Partnership, and authorizes Energy Security Pacts. Together, these tools enable the State Department to enter long-term agreements with partner countries to align financing, infrastructure development, and cooperation across critical minerals and nuclear energy. The bill also establishes a Bureau of Energy Security and Diplomacy led by a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary.
- ✔Expanding the Defense Industrial Base Sales Act (H.R. 8649) — Led by Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA), this legislation amends the Arms Export Control Act to authorize the use of foreign military financing (FMF) for direct commercial contracts. It would further require the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, to prescribe new regulations for its use. These regulations would include review and approval procedures, financial accountability standards, export control compliance, and efforts to encourage participation by nontraditional defense companies.
- ✔Allied Defense Sales Act (H.R. 8665) — Led by Reps. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Ami Bera (D-CA), this bipartisan legislation requires the Secretary of State to implement a strategy encouraging foreign partners to participate in the foreign military sales and direct commercial sales process. The strategy will outline steps to identify and survey eligible foreign partners’ interests, streamline processes, and address legal and regulatory requirements for these sales.
- ✔U.S.-Greece Defense Cooperation Advancement Act (H.R. 8019) — Led by Reps. Chris Pappas (D-NH) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), this bipartisan bill reauthorizes International Military Education and Training assistance to Greece for five years. The legislation strengthens U.S. cooperation with a key NATO ally in the Eastern Mediterranean across air, land, sea, and cyber domains. It achieves this by boosting interoperability, professional military education, and counternarcotics capability development. Together, these efforts help both countries confront regional destabilization, terrorism, threats from authoritarian regimes, and energy scarcity.
- ✔Taiwan PLUS Act (H.R. 3563) — Led by Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), Thomas Tiffany (R-WI), and Charles Fleischmann (R-TN), this bill strengthens defense cooperation between the United States and Taiwan by granting Taipei “NATO Plus” arms export status. The Secretary of State is authorized to extend the status beyond the initial five-year period through congressional notification. Taiwan is already treated as a major non-NATO ally for certain purposes but lacks the full legal standing of the “NATO Plus” community. While the bill does not resolve underlying production bottlenecks, elevating Taipei’s legal status would streamline notification requirements, reduce administrative friction in the arms transfer process, and align U.S. policy with longstanding obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act.
FDD Action Expert Analysis
“The United States and its allies must break their dependence on China for critical minerals that are essential to the 21st century economy. By helping build more resilient supply chains, expanding economic diplomacy, and providing more certainty for industry, the DOMINANCE Act advances U.S. national security and supports American economic strength. FDD Action is proud to endorse this important piece of bipartisan legislation.”
— Connor Pfeiffer, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action
Critical Mineral Supply Chains are Essential to U.S. National and Economic Security
Beijing’s grip on critical minerals is a national security liability. China controls 70% to 99% of global processing for 11 critical minerals tied to energy and defense applications. It is also the leading supplier for 25 of the 30 critical minerals on which the United States is more than 50% import dependent. That dominance hands the CCP coercive power over inputs essential to American weapons systems, semiconductors, and clean energy technologies. Beijing has already shown it is prepared to weaponize this leverage against the United States and its partners.
The United States has been outgunned in the global competition for influence over energy and minerals. Since 2015, China has outpaced the United States nearly ten-to-one in financing global energy projects, emerging as the leading partner for many developing countries. Beijing has also poured more than $94 billion into mining and processing ventures abroad between 2000 and 2023. Absent a deliberate U.S. counterstrategy, China will continue locking in long-term commercial relationships and infrastructure while America’s influence erodes.
The DOMINANCE Act would equip Washington to coordinate with allies more effectively and de-risk private investment. By codifying the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE) and authorizing Energy Security Pacts, the bill creates a durable framework needed for sustained allied action. Mineral and strategic energy projects are slow, capital-intensive, and politically exposed. These factors have long deterred Western firms from competing in markets China dominates. However, predictable U.S. cooperation with allies changes that calculus, gives investors the policy certainty they need, and offers partner countries a high-standard alternative to opaque, state-driven Chinese financing.
FDD Action Expert Analysis
“U.S. arms sales are an integral part of U.S. foreign policy and a core responsibility of the State Department. The Expanding the Defense Industrial Base Sales Act would allow additional countries the flexibility to purchase systems and munitions through the commercial sales process. The result is faster delivery of key capabilities to the places they are needed most. This would provide U.S. manufacturers more certainty in producing and delivering defense items without costly delays.”
— Tyler Stapleton, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action
Expanding FMF for Direct Commercial Sales
The Expanding the Defense Industrial Base Sales Act strengthens U.S. national security and bolsters strategic defense cooperation with allies by:
- Providing financing for direct commercial sales. It allows any foreign country or international organization eligible to receive FMF to procure defense articles, defense services, and design and construction services not sold by the U.S. government.
- Maintaining approval and oversight. The Secretary of State must approve any use of FMF authorized by this legislation and may impose terms, conditions, and limitations to advance U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.
- Governing regulations. The Secretary of State is required to prescribe specific regulations of FMF for direct commercial sales authorized by this act.
- Improving weapons delivery timelines. This financing would route more arms exports through direct commercial sales, bypassing the Department of Defense’s contracting process, a leading source of delivery delays. The result would be dramatically faster weapons deliveries to U.S. allies.