From Munitions Shortage to Ebola, Dodd–Frank Minerals Measure Makes Things Worse

A scan of news headlines warns readers of two seemingly unrelated dangers around the globe. One is a potential shortage of missiles, interceptors, and other weapons necessary for U.S. defense. The other is the growing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

These two predicaments share a common cause that the United States can fix.

The key factor is a harmful mandate inserted at the last moment into the Dodd–Frank financial overhaul that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010. This provision of the law — Section 1502 — forces many American manufacturers to disclose to regulators and investors if anything they make contains even a single trace of “conflict minerals” mined in the DRC and nine adjoining countries.

Under the law, companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges must audit their supply chains and disclose if their products contain even traces of the designated minerals — gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten — that might have been mined in “conflict-affected” areas controlled by warlords.

U.S. activists, including celebrities like Ben Affleck, campaigned for this measure as necessary to protect DRC citizens from the warlords who enrich themselves from exploitative mineral production. The activists insisted that there would be few, if any, effects of a policy like Section 1502 on American businesses and consumers.

Yet the measure has resulted in the U.S. losing access to a crucial supply chain of critical minerals needed for virtually everything, ranging from medical equipment to vital weapons systems. It has also further impoverished the DRC and its neighbors, greatly reducing the resilience of these nations in combating Ebola and other public-health problems. 

The minerals targeted by this mandate serve as essential inputs in military munitions. Tungsten, for instance, is a key component of alloys critical in missile-guidance systems to enable more accurate travel paths. Tantalum, with its near-singular ability to maintain electrical stability at high temperatures and prevent corrosion in diverse climates, is an ideal material for hypersonic missiles. Tantalum and tungsten are both important for the technologies that intercept the missiles, rockets, and drones launched to attack the United States and our allies. 

Concerns about the depletion of these munitions are increasing as the war in Iran continues; accessing the DRC’s supply of minerals could become crucial if the conflict escalates further. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the DRC and adjoining countries produce the majority of the world’s tantalum, along with vast quantities of tungsten. Yet the Dodd–Frank mandate is thwarting U.S. manufacturers’ ability to access these vital materials from this region, while further worsening the financial conditions of the DRC’s own citizens. 

The conflict minerals provision serves as a barrier to import of these materials by U.S. companies due to the extraordinary difficulty of complying with the required disclosure. As the Wall Street Journal reported in 2015, manufacturers spent about $709 million and more than 6 million man-hours attempting to trace their supply chains. After all this time and expense, 90 percent of companies that filed the mandatory reports still couldn’t confirm whether their products were conflict-free. As a result, many decided to avoid the central African region altogether; they sourced materials from other countries and continents instead.

The compliance burden has not abated in recent years. In late 2024, Apple told the BBC that it had suspended sourcing product inputs from the DRC and its neighbor, Rwanda. “We were concerned it was no longer possible for independent auditors or industry certification mechanisms to perform the due diligence required,” a company spokesman said. 

Two leaders in Congress recently expressed concern about defense manufacturers avoiding the region. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill and Vice Chair Bill Huizenga, who also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to President Trump that “the current disclosure regime has contributed to the withdrawal of U.S. and allied firms from this region, deterring lawful private-sector investment and ceding influence to strategic competitors like China.” 

In their letter, Hill and Huizenga note that the Dodd–Frank provision allows the president to waive the mandate for two years if doing so serves the interest of national security. They urge Trump to issue such a waiver, stating that the national security “standard is clearly satisfied here, particularly in light of intensifying geopolitical competition over critical mineral supply chains.”

Such a waiver, as well as eventual repeal of the provision by Congress, would also help rescue the DRC from the harms of the policy that is trying to “save” it. The de facto embargo on minerals from the DRC has diminished its residents’ access to schooling, food, and health care, due in large part to the region’s miners being thrown out of work.

A 2016 study in the Journal of Law and Economics estimated that the Dodd–Frank mandate resulted in infant mortality increasing by at least 143 percent in the DRC regions near the targeted minerals; the study also found that the mandate led to a sharp reduction of the DRC’s purchases of essential disease-preventing items, such as bed nets. The impoverishment and declining health-care infrastructure have also likely weakened the ability of DRC citizens to respond to the ongoing Ebola crisis, which so far has resulted in more than 7,000 cases and 3,000 deaths.

On top of this, a review in 2024 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that there was “no empirical evidence that the rule has decreased the occurrence or level of violence in the eastern DRC, where many mines and armed groups are located.” The review  also noted that “the rule was associated with a spread of violence, particularly around informal, small-scale gold mining sites . . . since gold is more portable and less traceable than the other three minerals.” 

President Trump and Congress must act to free U.S. manufacturers and DRC citizens from this far-reaching mandate that threatens the well-being and security of both countries.

Mr. Berlau is Director of Finance Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where Mr. Bilibio was a Summer 2026 research associate.