
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s (SASC) markup of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes more funds for the Defense Department to develop the ability to produce rare earth elements, in order to take back global market share from China. The SASC’s NDAA executive summary, released May 23, includes $3.5 million in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds “for the Department of Defense to develop the capability to produce rare earth elements from coal ash, a…