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This Is Why We Hold Hearings

Washington, May 22, 2013


Yesterday's Monetary Policy & Trade Subcommittee hearing showed a heartbreaking example of the unintended consequences of uninformed legislative action.


Congressman Mick Muvaley explains in the video above how a provision buried deep within the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank Act is hurting the very people it was supposed to help in the war-torn central African nation of the Congo. The provision – added to Dodd-Frank as Section 1502 without any congressional hearings – requires public companies to certify their supply chains are free of any and all “conflict minerals” originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


As many as 12.5 million Congolese – 17% of the country’s population – depend on mineral trading to make a living. But today, as the conflict rages on, up to 2 million Congolese miners have lost their livelihoods and are now even more impoverished than before Dodd-Frank’s enactment.

 One of our witnesses at yesterday's hearing and a native of the Congo himself, Mvemba Dizolele, noted: “Oversimplification of issues often produces inadequate, counterproductive policies.” He’s right. And that’s why legislative hearings are critical to understanding the potential consequences of public policy.
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