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Bloomberg Talks

Senator Jeanne Shaheen Talks Foreign Relations and Rare Earth Minerals

06 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 8.024 Karen Moskow

Bloomberg Daybreak is your best way to get informed first thing in the morning, right in your podcast feed. Hi, I'm Karen Moskow.

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8.204 - 21.465 Nathan Hager

And I'm Nathan Hager. Each morning, we're up early putting together the latest episode of Bloomberg Daybreak U.S. Edition. It's your daily 15-minute podcast on the latest in global news, politics, and international relations.

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21.445 - 27.937 Karen Moskow

Listen to the Bloomberg Daybreak U.S. Edition podcast each morning for the stories that matter with the context you need.

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27.997 - 31.463 Nathan Hager

Find us on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen.

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35.209 - 40.078 Unknown

Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News.

40.531 - 55.911 Joe Mathieu

We're joined now by Democratic Senator Jeanne 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 earths processing plant run by Phoenix Tailings in Exeter, New Hampshire.

56.592 - 69.289 Joe Mathieu

And Senator, we're looking forward to hearing more about why you're there. I want to ask you, though, first about the situation with Iran as the State Department calls on American citizens to leave the country immediately. Is this the prelude to war?

70.602 - 96.863 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Well, I hope not. I think the talks in Amman 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.

98.564 - 121.613 Joe Mathieu

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.

Chapter 2: What is the significance of the State Department's warning for Americans in Iran?

186.02 - 200.796 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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 Woodcoff and Jared Kushner have that credibility.

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201.991 - 224.05 Joe Mathieu

Well, in the spirit of national security, we've been talking a lot about critical minerals and 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 $12 billion 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, uh,

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224.03 - 241.347 Joe Mathieu

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 earths 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?

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242.255 - 263.896 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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.

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264.136 - 287.787 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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, 90% of the processing of those elements is being done in China.

287.767 - 313.943 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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

Chapter 3: How does Senator Shaheen view the negotiations regarding Iran?

313.923 - 347.001 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

So what's left over when mining is done. And they have a process here to develop those into some of the 17 rare earth minerals that are so important. And all of those... appliances, 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.

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347.774 - 371.25 Joe Mathieu

Well, the way you frame that is really important, Senator, because as we're constantly reminded in this conversation about finding rare earths, 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?

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372.293 - 399.735 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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 complement each other. But our legislation doesn't just set up that reserve that takes...

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399.715 - 428.815 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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 authorized $2.5 billion for the proposal. And we're working in a bipartisan way.

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428.835 - 444.083 Senator Jeanne Shaheen

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.

445.447 - 460.671 Joe Mathieu

spending time with Senator Gene Shaheen of New Hampshire. And I have to ask you, Senator, about what's happening on Capitol Hill right now. And I know that lawmakers 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.

460.691 - 472.487 Joe Mathieu

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.

472.968 - 493.813 Joe Mathieu

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 talked to several of them this week, Senator, including John Cornyn, Ted Budd, and Ted Cruz. Let's listen to what they said.

495.16 - 513.304 Unknown

The reason that ICE agents are having to wear masks is because the left is deliberately doxing them. They are targeting them. If they find out their identities, they are sending violent protesters to their homes. They are threatening their families. We've got them using body cams for their operations right now. I think that's a bipartisan idea.

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