Request for Public Comments on the Potential Market Impact of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Materials Plan From the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee

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Published

September 23, 2022

Issuing agencies

Commerce DepartmentIndustry and Security Bureau

Abstract

The National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee, co- chaired by the Departments of Commerce and State, is seeking public comments on the potential market impact of proposed changes of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Annual Materials Plan (AMP). Potential changes to the AMP are decided by the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee who advise the Defense Logistics Agency in its role as the National Defense Stockpile Manager on the projected domestic and foreign economic effects of all acquisitions, conversions, and disposals involving the National Defense Stockpile.

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 184 (Friday, September 23, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 184 (Friday, September 23, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58058-58061]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20687]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Industry and Security

[Docket No. 220916-0192]
RIN 0694-XC091

Request for Public Comments on the Potential Market Impact of the
Proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Materials Plan From the National
Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee

AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of inquiry; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee, co-
chaired by the Departments of Commerce and State, is seeking public
comments on the potential market impact of proposed changes of the
Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Annual Materials Plan (AMP). Potential changes to
the AMP are decided by the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact
Committee who advise the Defense Logistics Agency in its role as the
National Defense Stockpile Manager on the projected domestic and
foreign economic effects of all acquisitions, conversions, and
disposals involving the National Defense Stockpile.

DATES: To be considered, written comments must be received by October
24, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Submissions: You may submit comments, identified by docket
number BIS-2022-0024 or RIN 0694-XC091, through the Federal eRulemaking
Portal: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>. To submit comments via <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>, enter the docket number BIS-2022-0024 on the home
page and click ``Search.'' The site will provide a search results page
listing all documents associated with this docket. Find a reference to
this notice and click the button entitled ``Comment.'' Further
Instructions on how to submit a comment on <a href="http://regulations.gov">regulations.gov</a> can be found
on the FAQ page. BIS also requests commenters review the instructions
in the Additional Instructions for Comments section further in this
notice. BIS, as the publisher of the notice, will be receiving the
comments and disseminating them to the National Defense Stockpile
Market Impact Committee. While BIS encourages the submissions of
comments via <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>, comments may also be
submitted via email to the following: Katherine Reid, U.S. Department
of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Strategic
Industries and Economic Security, email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#24696d6764464d570a404b470a434b52"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="064b4f4546646f752862696528616970">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>. All comments
submitted through email to Commerce must include the phrase ``Market
Impact Committee Notice of Inquiry'' in the subject line and will be
added to the docket on <a href="http://regulations.gov">regulations.gov</a>. Public comments are an
important element of the Committee's market impact review process.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marina Youssef, Office of Strategic
Industries and Economic Security, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S.
Department of Commerce, telephone: (202) 482-3504, (Attn: Marina
Youssef), email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#82cfcbc1c2e0ebf1ace6ede1ace5edf4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3974707a795b504a175d565a175e564f">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The federal government operates several different stockpiles, and
these are managed by different federal agencies depending on the
stockpile's purpose. For example, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) manages the Strategic National Stockpile, which contains
medicines and medical equipment. HHS' stockpile can supplement medical
countermeasures needed by states, tribal nations, territories and the
largest metropolitan areas during public health emergencies. Another
example, the Department of Energy operates the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve for use when the international oil market is severely
disrupted.
The Department of Defense (DOD) maintains a stockpile of critical
and strategic materials known as the National Defense Stockpile (NDS).
In a war or national emergency, this stockpile is meant to provide
strategic and critical materials to support national defense and
essential civilian requirements in a time of national emergency. The
stockpile currently contains 57 materials, primarily

[[Page 58059]]

minerals, that are deemed strategic and critical to national
security.\1\
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\1\ Defense Logistics Agency, ``Strategic Materials: Office,''
U.S. Department of Defense, <a href="https://www.dla.mil/HQ/Acquisition/StrategicMaterials/About/">https://www.dla.mil/HQ/Acquisition/StrategicMaterials/About/</a>.
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Under the authority of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock
Piling Revision Act of 1979, as amended (the Stock Piling Act) (50
U.S.C. 98 et seq.), the Department of Defense's Defense Logistics
Agency (DLA) is the National Defense Stockpile Manager. The NDS is a
strategic stockpile, not an economic stockpile. It is not intended to
influence prices in the market or insulate private industry from supply
shocks. Rather, its purpose is to ensure the defense and essential
civilian industrial base has consistent access to the materiel it
needs--and the private industries making products have the raw
materials they need--in war or national emergency.
Congress authorizes the sale of excess materials in the stockpile,
and proceeds of the sales are transferred to the National Defense
Stockpile Transaction Fund. The NDS does not receive annual
appropriations in the defense budget--neither for new purchases of
materials nor for operations expenses. Instead, the stockpile has a
revolving fund in the US Treasury called the National Defense Stockpile
Transaction Fund.\2\ Whenever materials in the stockpile are sold, the
proceeds of that sale are added to the fund. The DLA then uses that
money to pay for the operational expenses of maintaining the stockpile
and to purchase new materials. Information about stockpile
transactions--what was bought, what was sold, at what value it was
sold--is publicly available in annual and monthly reports published by
DLA.\3\
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\2\ Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Revision Act
of 1979, Public Law 96-41, p. 5.
\3\ Strategic Materials Reports (<a href="http://dla.mil">dla.mil</a>).
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Section 3314 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 1993 (FY 1993 NDAA) (50 U.S.C. 98h-1) formally established a
Market Impact Committee (the Committee) to ``advise the National
Defense Stockpile Manager on the projected domestic and foreign
economic effects of all acquisitions and disposals of materials from
the stockpile. . . .'' The Committee must also balance market impact
concerns with the statutory requirement to protect the U.S. Government
against avoidable loss. See 50 U.S.C. 98e (b)(2).
The Committee is comprised of representatives from the Departments
of Commerce, State, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, the
Treasury, and Homeland Security. The FY 1993 NDAA directs the Committee
to consult with industry representatives that produce, process, or
consume the types of materials stored in the Stockpile as the National
Defense Stockpile Manager, the DLA must produce an Annual Materials
Plan (AMP) proposing the maximum quantity of each listed material that
may be acquired, disposed of, upgraded, converted, recovered, or sold
by the DLA in a particular fiscal year. With this notice, Commerce, on
behalf of DLA, lists the quantities and types of activity--potential
disposals, potential acquisitions, potential conversions (upgrade,
rotation, reprocessing, etc.) or potential recovery (from government
sources)--associated with each material in its proposed FY 2024 AMP.
The quantities listed in Attachment 1 are not acquisition,
disposal, upgrade, conversion, recovery, reprocessing, or sales target
quantities, but rather a statement of the proposed maximum quantity of
each listed material that may be acquired, disposed of, upgraded,
converted, recovered, or sold in a particular fiscal year by the DLA.
The quantity of each material that will actually be acquired or offered
for sale will depend on the market for the material at the time of the
acquisition or offering, as well as on the quantity of each material
approved by Congress for acquisition, disposal, conversion, or
recovery.

Additional Instructions for Comments

The Committee is interested in any supporting data and
documentation on the potential market impact of the quantities
associated with the proposed FY 2024 AMP.
While <a href="http://regulations.gov">regulations.gov</a> allows users to provide comments by filling
in a ``Type Comment'' field or by attaching a document using an
``Upload File'' field, BIS prefers comments be provided in an attached
document--preferably in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf).
If the submission is in an application format other than Microsoft Word
or Adobe Acrobat, please indicate the name of the application in the
``Type Comment'' field. Please do not attach separate cover letters to
electronic submissions; rather, include any information that might
appear in a cover letter within the comments. Please include any
exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in the same file, so the
submission consists of one instead of multiple files. All filers should
name their files using the name of the person or entity submitting the
comments.
Submitted materials properly marked as business confidential
information with a valid statutory basis for confidentiality and which
is accepted as such by BIS will not be disclosed publicly. Commenters
submitting business confidential information should clearly identify
the business confidential portion at the time of submission, include a
statement justifying nondisclosure and referring to the specific legal
authority claimed with the submission, and provide a non-confidential
version of the submission which will be placed in the public file on
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>. For comments containing business
confidential information, the file name of the business confidential
version should begin with the characters ``BC''. Any page containing
business confidential information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS
CONFIDENTIAL'' on the top of that page. The file name of the non-
confidential version should begin with the character ``P''. The non-
confidential version must be clearly marked ``PUBLIC'' on the top of
the first page. The ``BC'' and ``P'' should be followed by the name of
the person or entity submitting the comments.
The Office of Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S.
Department of Commerce, displays public comments on the BIS Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) website at <a href="https://efoia.bis.doc.gov/">https://efoia.bis.doc.gov/</a>. This
office does not maintain a separate public inspection facility. If you
have technical difficulties accessing this website, please call BIS's
Office of Administration at (202) 482-1900 for assistance.

Thea D. Rozman Kendler,
Assistant Secretary for Export Administration.

Attachment 1

[[Page 58060]]

Proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Materials Plan
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Material Unit Quantity Footnote
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Potential Disposals
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Beryllium Metal.............................. ST.............................. 8
Carbon Fibers................................ Lbs............................. 98,000
Chromium, Ferro.............................. ST.............................. 24,000
Chromium, Metal.............................. ST.............................. 500
Germanium.................................... kg.............................. 5,000
Manganese, Ferro............................. ST.............................. 50,000
Manganese, Metallurgical Grade............... SDT............................. 322,238 (\1\)
Aerospace Alloys............................. Lbs............................. 1,500,000
Platinum..................................... Tr Oz........................... 8,380 (\1\)
PGM--Iridium................................. Tr Oz........................... 489 (\1\)
Quartz Crystals.............................. Lbs............................. 15,759 (\1\)
Tantalum..................................... Lbs............................. 190 (\1\)
Tin.......................................... MT.............................. 640
Titanium Based Alloys........................ Lbs............................. 1,000,000
Tungsten Ores and Concentrates............... Lbs W........................... 2,000,000 (\1\)
Zinc......................................... ST.............................. 2,500
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Potential Acquisitions
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Aluminum (High Purity)....................... MT.............................. 17,000
Aluminum Alloys.............................. MT.............................. 1,500
Antimony..................................... MT.............................. 1,100
Cadmium Zinc Telluride....................... EA.............................. 1,000
Cerium....................................... MT.............................. 550
Electrolytic Manganese Metal................. MT.............................. 5,000
Energetics................................... Lbs............................. 20,000,000
Ferroniobium................................. Lbs Nb.......................... 300,000
Grain Oriented Electric...................... MT.............................. 3,200
Iso-Molded Graphite.......................... MT.............................. 1,300
Lanthanum.................................... MT.............................. 1,300
Magnesium.................................... MT.............................. 3,500
Neodymium-Praseodymium Oxide................. MT.............................. 300
NdFeB Magnet Block........................... KG.............................. 286,000
Rayon........................................ MT.............................. 600
Samarium-Cobalt Alloy........................ MT.............................. 200
Tantalum..................................... Lbs Ta.......................... 53,000
Tire Cord Steel.............................. MT.............................. 2,370,000
Titanium..................................... ST.............................. 15,000
Tungsten..................................... Lbs W........................... 587,000
Zirconium.................................... MT.............................. 230
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Potential Conversions (Upgrade, rotation, reprocessing, etc.)
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Aerospace Alloys............................. Lbs............................. 50,000
Antimony..................................... Lbs............................. 198,000
Beryllium Metal.............................. ST.............................. 8
CZT (Cadmium Zinc Tellurium substrates)...... EA.............................. 1,000
Carbon Fibers................................ Lbs............................. 5,000
Europium..................................... MT.............................. 35
Germanium.................................... kg.............................. 5,000
Iridium Catalyst............................. Lbs............................. 200
Lithium Ion Materials........................ MT.............................. 25
Rare Earths Elements......................... MT.............................. 12
Silicon Carbide Fibers....................... Lbs............................. 875
Triamino Trinitrobenzene (TATB).............. Lbs............................. 48,000
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Potential Recovery From Government Sources
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Aerospace Alloys............................. Lbs............................. 1,500,000
Battery Materials............................ MT.............................. 50
Boron Carbide................................ MT.............................. 300
Cobalt....................................... Lbs............................. 50,000
E-Waste...................................... MT.............................. 100 (\2\)
Germanium.................................... kg.............................. 5,000
Iridium Catalyst............................. Lbs............................. 200
Magnesium Metal.............................. MT.............................. 25
Rare Earths.................................. Lbs............................. 20,000
Tantalum..................................... MT.............................. 10
Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Rods................. kg.............................. 250
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Footnote Key:

[[Page 58061]]

\1\ Actual quantity will be limited to remaining excess inventory.
\2\ Strategic and Critical Materials collected from E-Waste (Strategic Materials collected from electronics
waste).

[FR Doc. 2022-20687 Filed 9-22-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-33-P

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