Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
We're joined now by Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, an important voice as she is ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. I should mention the Senator is joining us from a rare Earth's processing plan run by Phoenix Tailings at Exeter, New Hampshire, and Senator, we're looking forward to
hearing more about why you're there. I want to ask you, though, first about this situation with Iran, as the State Department calls on American citizens to leave the country immediately. Is this the prelude to war?
Well, I hope not. I think the talks and Aman are a very good sign. I think there is great concern about Iran, both their attempt to get a nuclear weapon and they're very close to that, as well as all of the support that they provide to terrorist groups across the Middle East. So negotiations are always better than fighting, and I hope that these negotiations will lead to something.
Well, I do hear you on that, but the President of course has kept military options on the table. We have a massive armada, as he likes to call it off. The coast of Iran prepared to strike. The USS Lincoln Carrier strike Group is there, and we've put a number of other assets in the region. The President has repeatedly said things like help is on the way to protesters. He said this week that Iran should be very worried. Some have suggested that every time the President has assembled
this much hardware, he has intended to use it. How about this time.
Well, we don't know. I don't have any insights into the presidents thinking about this. But again, that's why these talks are so important. If we can reach some agreement around around support for terrorist groups in the region, if we can reach some support around slowing down their effort to get a nuclear weapon, that will be positive not just for the region, but for global security. So there's a lot writing on these talks. I hope they're going to stay at the table and come to an agreement.
Can I ask what you think about who's at the table? These are being framed as indirect talk, Senator, but we once again see the President, Special Envoy Steve Whitdcoff and his son in law Jared Kushner speaking for the United States. So those the two people who should be in the room.
Well, I hope they've got some backup from the State Department as well. But the fact is it's important to have somebody who can speak for the president, who's close to the president, so that they have some credibility as they go into talks. And I think both Steve wood Coff and Jared Kushner have that credibility.
Well, in the spirit of national security, we've been talking a lot about critical minerals in rare earths here in Washington. This week, the President gathered a number of countries in fact, to start work on what is at least beginning as a twelve billion dollar critical minerals stockpile. And it's something that you've been leaning into as well with your Secure Minerals Act. I'd like to ask you what you're looking
at here. It's a bipartisan piece of legislation as you join us, as I mentioned from Phoenix Trailings, a rare earth's processing plant with its eyes on American minerals and processed here in the United States, what would your legislation do to add to what the President's up to.
Well, Phoenix Tailings is a company here in Exeter, New Hampshire where I am. As you can see from my backdrop right now, I've had a great opportunity to talk to the folks here. They're one of just a handful, a very small, less than five companies in the United States that are actually doing the processing of rare earth minerals. And why that's so important, as you know and so many of your viewers understand, is because those are elements that are in everything from our appliances to our cars,
to our missiles and our aircraft. So they are critical to everything we do. And right now, ninety percent of the processing of those elements is being done in China, and so we are subject to whatever China's whims are about whether they're going to continue to sell us those rare earth elements. And that's why companies like Phoenix Tailings are so important, and what our legislation is designed to do is to try and support that domestic industry in
the United States. What Phoenix does is to take mine tailings, so what's left over when mining is done, and they have a process here to develop those into one of this some of the seventeen rare earth minerals that are so important in all of those appliance's everything appliances to missiles to everything else that we use computers in the modern world. So it's really important for us to develop that domestic industry, and that's what our legislation does.
Well, the way you frame that is really important, Senator, because as we're constantly reminded in this conversation about finding rare Earth's critical minerals for anything from data centers to weapons to cars, as you put it, or even our cell phones, it's not so much finding the minerals, it's processing them. How will your legislation go to enhancing processing here in the United States.
Well, it sets up strategic Resilience Reserve we call it. That's sort of based on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and very much like what the president's proposing in terms of his policies this week as part of this critical Mineral summit that he had in Washington, and so I think they complemented other But our legislation doesn't just set up that reserve that takes allows us to stockpile those critical minerals.
What it also does is to support a domestic industry here so that small businesses can develop the industry that they can engage helps them with access to capital markets with.
Funding.
We would authorize two and a half billion dollars for the proposal, and we're working in a bipartisan way. It would create a seven member board that would function sort of like the Federal Reserve Board over banking and be independent and make recommendations for how we could continue to support this industry.
Spending time with Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, and I have to ask you, Senator, about what's happening on Capitol Hill right now. And I know that makers are out of town at the moment, but we've got another deadline. We're going to be sitting here a week from tonight, possibly talking about the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. And I know you're familiar with the list of demands that Senator Schumer and Democratic Leader Jeffries have sent to
Republican leaders. Demasking is a big part of this body cameras, as noted already by the Department of Homeland Security, but also restrictions on the use of warrants, for instance, and some other training ideas that have been rejected out of hand by a number of your Republican colleagues in the Senate. We've talked to several of them this week's Senator, including John Cornyn, Ted Budd and Ted Cruz. Let's listen to what they said.
The reason that I say ages are having to wear masks is because the Left is deliberately dosing them. They are targeting them if they find out their identities. They are sending violent protesters to their homes, They're threatening their families. We've got them using body cams for their operations right now.
I think that's a bypart.
That's an idea.
These ICE agents are being targeted by some of the anti ICE instigators, and I think in some instances their identity should be protected. But this is just to me, just a ridiculous request.
Senator. I don't know how much of this is bluster at the outset of a controversial or difficult negotiation, but it sounds like Democrats and Republicans are oceans apart on these ideas. Does DHS shut down next week?
Well, that's what the negotiation is about. And with respect to masking, obviously there would need to be a waiver to address any particular concerns about doxing. But I was governor in New Hampshire for three terms. The state Police in New Hampshire. Local law enforcement in New Hampshire never wore masks when they were going to a crime scene or going to arrest people. The fact is the American people are not only outraged, but many are afraid about
the behavior of ICE. When ICE is able to kill American citizens with impunity on America streets, there is a problem, and what we need is reform that addresses the concerns about how ICE is operating. It seems to me that's in everybody's interest. It's in the population's interest, it's in Republican and democratic interests to try and reach some accommodation. I hope that's what these negotiations are going to be able to achieve.
We've seen ICE deployed in the state of Maine, one of your neighbors, Senator, do you have any reason to believe that they would be deployed in New Hampshire.
Well, We've had ICE agents here arresting people. I've been to facilities where I talk to child care center where I hear from those who are working there that they have parents who are afraid to come and drop their children off because they're worried about ice agents. There are people in school rules in New Hampshire who are worried about agents. Know that's not making our community safer, that's making people afraid. I don't think that's Most New Hampshire
constituents that I talk to want a secure border. They want to send back the criminals who are here illegally. But what they don't want is people coming into their communities, disrupting their schools, disrupting their hospitals, disrupting their childcare centers. So we need to pass some reforms. We ought to be able to sit down like adults responsibly and get something done and stop the name calling.
Joining us live from Exeter, New Hampshire, Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen, it's great to have you back, Senator. Good luck to your patriots this weekend.