SAMS Act Turns Critical Mineral Executive Orders into Permanent Law: What It Means for Future Policy Shifts

The Securing America’s Mineral Supply Act of 2025, or SAMS Act, isn't introducing a massive new regulation right out of the gate. Instead, Section 2 is doing something procedural but highly significant: it’s taking several existing Executive Orders (EOs) focused on critical minerals and making them permanent federal law. Specifically, EOs 13817, 13953, 14154, 14241, and 14272—which deal with securing supply chains for resources like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements—are being codified. This means the policies established by these presidential directives are no longer just temporary executive policy; they are now binding statute that future administrations cannot easily undo.

Locking Down the Supply Chain Rules

Think of an Executive Order as a temporary policy memo from the CEO of the country. It’s powerful, but the next CEO can scrap it with the stroke of a pen. By codifying these EOs, the SAMS Act is essentially moving those policies from the CEO’s desk into the company bylaws. For businesses relying on a stable supply of critical minerals—from electric vehicle manufacturers to defense contractors—this provides a huge boost in policy certainty. They now know the rules governing resource prioritization and domestic sourcing are locked in for the long haul, reducing the risk that their long-term investment strategies will be upended by a change in administration.

The Trade-Off: Stability vs. Flexibility

While stability is great for industry, this move carries a significant political and practical trade-off. The policies outlined in these EOs—which affect everything from mining regulations to international trade agreements for minerals—were originally put in place by executive action, often without the full legislative debate that comes with passing a bill. By converting them into law, Congress is essentially rubber-stamping those prior executive decisions and making them much harder to change. Any future President or agency that decides these policies need an update, or that they are overly burdensome, can no longer just issue a new Executive Order. They would need Congress to pass a whole new law to modify or repeal them. This shift effectively concentrates policy power, making the executive branch less flexible in responding to rapidly changing global mineral markets without legislative intervention. For groups that might have found the original EOs restrictive or problematic, this means their path to reform just got a lot steeper and slower.