[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7805]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONFLICT MINERALS LAW

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Congress often considers issues that have 
far reaching consequences for millions of people, but in 2010, a law 
was enacted that literally meant life-or-death for millions of people 
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The law stems the flow of 
financial support to warloads in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
Many may not realize that more than 5 million people have been killed 
during long-running conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 
which have been the most deadly since World War II. Tragically, women 
and children have suffered the most, as is too often the case when it 
comes to conflict.
  Millions have been displaced from their homes, and the prevalence of 
rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war is almost beyond belief, 
earning eastern Congo the grim distinction of being the ``Rape Capital 
of the World.'' Sam Brownback first took me there in 2005, and I 
returned again in 2010. At the time, the U.N. reported that about 1,000 
women were sexually assaulted every day in Congo, roughly equivalent to 
12 percent of all Congolese women. I can still vividly remember walking 
across the lava-strewn refugee camps and visiting the victims of sexual 
assault in the heroic Heal Africa Hospital. I also recall the hearing I 
held in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law about 
rape as a weapon of war. Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege testified about 
the horrors of the region's sexual violence he helped treat at Panzi 
Hospital. One of the drivers and funders of this conflict was 
paradoxically that which 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 was being 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 commit unspeakable horrors on 
innocent civilians. That is why, in 2009, I joined Senators Brownback 
and Feingold and Congressman McDermott in drafting a simple reporting 
requirement for US-registered corporations that source these four 
minerals from the DRC or its neighbors. It passed and became law in 
2010 to help stem the flow of financial support from illicit mining to 
the region's horrific violence.
  It wasn't a ban. It was simply a transparency measure that said if 
you use any of these key minerals from the region, you had to note in 
your filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission what, if 
anything, you were doing to not source from those fueling the region's 
violence. If a company isn't taking any action to avoid fueling the 
region's violence, there isn't a penalty, but at least consumers would 
know that. This gives consumers the final decision on what electronics 
they want in their pockets. On a broader scale, the measure aimed to 
use collective industry action to clean up the supply chain of these 
minerals, which I am proud to say has worked.
  For example, before the law, not a single smelter of tin, tungsten, 
tantalum--also known as the 3Ts--or gold had submitted to and passed an 
audit about dealing in conflict minerals. Today, 76 percent of the 
world's smelters of the 3Ts or gold have passed such an audit. Today 
more than 200 mines have also now been certified as conflict free. The 
effects of supply chain due diligence in this region are remarkable and 
are due to the leadership of many in the industry, including Intel, 
Apple, Kemet, and a number of companies from Illinois, including 
Motorola and AAR Corp. This process is far from complete or perfect, 
but the conflict minerals law has helped clean up the minerals trade 
and ease the grip Congolese warlords have had on the mining sector.
  So imagine my dismay when I recently learned the Acting Chairman of 
the Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Piwowar, unilaterally 
instructed his staff to halt enforcement of the law. In his April 7 
statement, he mistakenly conflated aspects of an earlier court decision 
to justify his actions. It sets a dangerous precedent when an Acting 
Chairman decides which laws the SEC should and should not enforce.
  Let me be clear, this unilateral action was without legal basis and 
is beyond the scope of the Acting Chairman's authority. As such, I urge 
the Acting Chairman to rescind his directive and allow full enforcement 
of the Conflict Minerals law and rule. This isn't just about enforcing 
the law as written by Congress, this is life-or-death for millions of 
people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Acting Chairman 
would be well advised to remember that.

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