Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently tweeted about America’s dependency on China for resources. He gave statistics on mineral and medical supply dependency and warned of potential dangers.

"The Chinese Communist Party controls 90% of the world's critical minerals, 95% of processing for those minerals and 50% of our medical supplies," McCarthy tweeted. "If there is anything we should have learned from COVID, it's that we can no longer allow ourselves to be depending on China."

A House Committee on Natural Resources hearing discussed earlier this year the fact that China "unquestionably" dominates the global supply chains of minerals, both in terms of raw materials and refined products. New mining projects in the U.S. typically take hundreds of millions of dollars in upfront capital costs and require as long as 10 years to get through the permitting process, according to a memo from the hearing. The refining process for the minerals once they have been mined is also lengthy and expensive. Hardrock minerals, including copper, lithium and cobalt, are critical components in smartphones, laptops, satellites, national defense technology and renewable energy technology such as electric vehicle batteries, according to the memo. The rising demand for renewable energy technology corresponds with an increasing demand for those minerals, which must be mined.

Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith took a similar stance, telling Federal Newswire that America should not, for any industry, be dependent on China, but that "the U.S. should be working to have a significant percentage of all critical supplies.”

McCarthy represents the 20th District of California and holds the current position of speaker of the House. As a young man, McCarthy reportedly started his own local business, and it was through the struggles and bureaucracy he faced as an entrepreneur that he was inspired to join the public sphere. He was elected to his current position in January, according to his website.