U.S. House Financial Services Committee Takes Action On MSCI Priority By Voting To Repeal SEC Conflict Minerals Rule

On a party line vote last Thursday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed legislation, H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, that includes a provision to repeal the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) conflict minerals regulation. The vote was 34 to 26. 

The full House could take up H.R. 10 later this month. It is not yet clear when the Senate will consider similar legislation. 

Last December, the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) wrote to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) asking him to include conflict minerals repeal in his Dodd Frank reform legislation. We are pleased that he did and that we are now one step closer to repeal. 

The Trump administration also is clearly pursuing repeal of this harmful and costly regulation. MSCI also was pleased earlier this year when the SEC announced that it would suspend enforcement of portions of the conflict minerals rule. (Click here to read an earlier story from Connecting the Dots about how this SEC’s announcement could affect your company. Additionally, MSCI’s press release on the SEC’s announcement is available here.) MSCI is working hard to advocate for repeal of this rule. As a reminder, the organization also focused on elimination of the conflict minerals rule in its letter sent last December to the Trump transition team.