I do not see that in the Hill summary (I do not have the NYT subscription and cannot read the original article. A frustration I nearly always have anymore).

If I understand this approach directly then the government would buy oil on the world stage and then sell it at a loss?  That hardly seems practical for all materials that are impacted from inflationary pressures at the moment. 

Wouldn't also lead to increased costs of the item if scarcity is driven up in such a way through that kind of action. It may help the US but it would do nothing to stabilize markets and address the problem. In fact it may make them worse. Particularly if multiple governments employee it on any kind of scale. 

Perhaps for critical materials it is potentially useful but it does not seem like a good strategy unless there is more to it than that.