CEO Hal Quinn in Washington Times

In a response to an article about President Obama’s “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour,” National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn penned a letter-to-the-editor in the Washington Times laying out a plan to create jobs, grow the middle class and encourage domestic manufacturing — without spending billions of dollars.

A modernized mining permit process, Quinn writes, would have the job-creating effects the president has been anxious to produce. The automotive, heavy machinery, medical equipment, aerospace and energy industries contribute significantly to new manufacturing jobs and rely heavily on minerals and metals.

Currently, our permitting process forces U.S. manufacturers to depend on foreign supplies of minerals. Less than half the minerals U.S. manufacturers use are domestically mined — a number that been decreasing for decades despite the U.S. having one of the world’s largest mineral repositories

The passage of the “National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013,” through the House Natural Resources Committee this week could change that. Introduced by Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), the bi-partisan legislation calls for a reform of U.S. mine permitting, and would make domestic resources available to manufacturers, create jobs in important sectors and advance our global competitiveness.

Read the entire letter here.