[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16157-16158]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGO CONFLICT MINERALS LAW UPDATE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is not very often that Congress can 
make a policy change that has life-or-death consequences for millions 
of people, but in 2010 a law was enacted that is changing the money 
supply for warlords in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  Many may not realize that almost 5.5 million people have been killed 
during the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
which has been the most deadly since World War II. Tragically, women 
and children have suffered the most, as we too often see in conflicts. 
Millions have been displaced from their homes, and the prevalence of 
rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war is almost beyond belief. 
The U.N. reports that about 1,000 women are assaulted every day in 
Congo, which is roughly equivalent to 12 percent of all Congolese 
women.
  One of the drivers and funders of this conflict is paradoxically that 
which

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fills the DRC with such potential--its natural resources. Instead of 
paying for the nation's peace, education, roads and public health 
programs, the DRC's mineral wealth has been siphoned off to fund the 
armed groups that vie for local and regional control of vast areas far 
from Congo's capital, Kinshasa.
  Tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold are found in everyday electronics, 
jewelry, airplanes, and manufacturing equipment. But these minerals 
also have provided weapons and salaries to fighters, including 
conscripted child soldiers, who then visit unspeakable horrors on 
innocent civilians in return.
  Over 4 years ago, I joined former Senators Brownback and Feingold and 
Congressman Jim McDermott in drafting a simple transparency reporting 
requirement for U.S.-registered corporations that source these four 
minerals from the DRC or its neighbors. And in early June, after 
protracted legal challenges, the first of those annual reports was 
filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  The electronics industry, in general, has been out front on this push 
for great transparency, but sadly, the jewelry industry has lagged far 
behind on its due diligence and reporting. Some companies have made 
more than a good-faith effort to determine the origins of the minerals 
they and their suppliers use, and a few of those companies, I am proud 
to say, call Illinois home.
  One of the leaders, across all industries, on this is Motorola 
Solutions, headquartered in Schaumbergn, IL. Motorola Solutions emerged 
early as a company dedicated to cleaning up its supply chain, and to do 
so, it helped establish Solutions for Hope, dedicated to developing a 
closed-pipe supply chain. Kester, a subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works, 
makes electronic and automobile components and has been a leader in 
transparency of the smelters it uses. John Deere, headquartered in 
Moline, IL, painstakingly described its due diligence processes and 
even detailed the sources of minerals that its suppliers used. Others, 
like AAR Corporation, based out of Wood Dale, and Dover Corporation, 
headquartered in Downers Grove, developed conflict-mineral specific 
compliancy programs and provided detailed information on steps to 
identify risks in their supply chains. Lake Forest's IDEX Corporation 
underwent efforts to create a sourcing policy that in its first year of 
filing covered 90 percent of suppliers.
  I am sorry to say not all companies took this reporting requirement 
seriously, hiding behind the 2-year grace period that allows them to 
avoid questions. My hope is that these Illinois companies serve as an 
example for next year's filings nationwide. And here is why--this rule 
is yielding real, tangible, positive results already.
  The Government Accountability Office issued a report in late June 
that confirmed the opposite of claims made by those seeking to 
dismantle this reporting requirement. This rule has expanded the 
options for clean minerals sourcing in Central Africa. In fact, the 
number of certified conflict-free smelters has more than tripled in the 
past year alone. Intel has created its first conflict-free computer 
chip, while using responsibly sourced minerals from Congo and took its 
reporting a step further by voluntarily submitting it to third-party 
audits. Under the Conflict-Free Smelter Program, the number of 
international smelters operating free from conflict minerals continues 
to grow. Almost 90 smelters (40 percent of the world's total smelters) 
are certified as conflict-free and more than 150 companies and industry 
associations participate in the program.
  After being refined the origins of the material become difficult to 
track. Smelters purchase materials from a variety of sources, so the 
smelter or refiner is a critical point in the supply chain, where we 
can look for assurances about whether the material has been purchased 
from conflict-free sources. Apple has confirmed that its entire 
tantalum supply chain is conflict free. Dutch smart phone manufacturer 
Fairphone is making its products with conflict-free raw materials. 
Fairphone has already sold 35,000 units and is hoping to expand 
production as more consumers embrace conflict-free electronics. 
Fairphone and others are leading by example and proving that conflict-
free is not only possible but that it can be profitable too.
  The Enough Project recently reported on the effect of this 
legislation, and it is good news. Armed groups and the Congolese army 
are no longer present at 2/3 of tin, tantalum, and tungsten mines 
surveyed in eastern Congo. It also appears that responsible sourcing 
initiatives might be contagious--Congo-Brazzaville, the DRC's neighbor 
to the west, has begun its own program to determine clean sources of 
minerals as well. I am also happy to say that our counterparts in the 
European Union are reviewing a bill based on our law to require 
European companies to provide similar transparency in their own supply 
chains. China has instituted similar rules, and other nations are 
following close behind.
  The Congress has emerged as a world leader on conflict-minerals 
reporting, and the early results suggest that the people of the DRC 
should not have to suffer unspeakable violence that can be traced back 
to our cell phones, wedding rings, and cars. The filings are far from 
perfect, but we have begun the process. I appreciate those industry 
players that are leading the way. I can only hope that by cutting off 
this rich source of funding for the fighting in the Congo, we can help 
spare its citizens from the senseless violence that is tearing the 
country apart.

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