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Legislators Stand Up for Conflict-Free Minerals on the Hill

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Legislators Stand Up for Conflict-Free Minerals on the Hill

Posted by Enough Team on November 4, 2013

Legislators Stand Up for Conflict-Free Minerals on the Hill

This post was written by guest-blogger Evan Anderson. 

Last week, a number of current and former members of Congress joined the fight over the provision of the Dodd-Frank Act which requires corporations to become more transparent and clean up their supply chains. Specifically, the legislation hopes to prevent armed groups in central Africa from continuing to profit off the sale of valuable minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold for use in everyday consumer products around the globe.

In response to corporate complaints over the newly-mandated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, the lawmakers published a court brief defending the SEC and the ethos of the law.

Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, chief Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says,

“We understand that implementing these rules is difficult and involves a new way of doing business for big companies. But we felt and continue to feel that those challenges are worth it to protect the human and labor rights of very vulnerable individuals in remote areas of the world, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Enough Project investigations have proven the benefits of this legislation for communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, and we applaud this latest effort by our champions in Congress to stand up to critics.   

Joining Engel on the brief are Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Reps. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), McDermott (D-Wash.), Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and former Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.).

Photo: Capitol Hill (AP).