{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/sen-leahy-sen-cardin-and-others-send-letter-to-mnuchin-on-sec-oil-gas-mining-transparency-rule", "Sen. Leahy, Sen. Cardin And Others Send Letter To Mnuchin On SEC Oil, Gas, Mining Transparency Rule", "2017-11-21", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Patrick Leahy", "L000174", "www.leahy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.21.17\n\t\t\t Sen. Leahy, Sen. Cardin And Others Send Letter To Mnuchin On SEC Oil, Gas, Mining Transparency Rule \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t . . . Senators criticize Treasury move to invalidate law, point to other country, company compliance as proof that transparency works\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led 14 of his colleagues Tuesday, including Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, urging him to withdraw the Department\u2019s recent recommendation that a key extractive industry transparency provision be completely repealed by Congress. Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans halted the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s implementation of the rule but left the underlying rulemaking instructions in place.\r\nSection 1504 of Dodd-Frank, also known as the bipartisan Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption provision, promotes transparency and accountability by requiring domestic and foreign oil, gas, and mineral companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges to publish the payments they make to foreign governments.\u00a0 Leahy also played a central role in its enactment.\r\nJoining Senator Cardin on the letter are U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).\r\n\u201cThe Treasury Department\u2019s recommendation to repeal the statute would forfeit U.S. leadership on this critical issue, at a time when it is vital the U.S. reaffirm its commitment to combating corruption,\u201d the Senators said. \u201cRepeal would also undermine our energy security and our national security\u2026.undermine global transparency and anti-corruption efforts, and undercut our allies who followed U.S. leadership by enacting and implementing their own disclosure measures.\u201d\r\n\u201cSection 1504 supports the Treasury Department\u2019s mission to help ensure a more stable operating environment for U.S. and U.S.-listed companies, to strengthen national security, and to protect the capital of American investors,\u201d the Senators added. \u201cWe urge you to withdraw this recommendation.\u00a0\r\nThe full text of the Senators\u2019 letter follows:\r\nDear Secretary Mnuchin:\r\nWe strongly disagree with the Treasury Department\u2019s recent recommendation that Congress repeal Section 1504 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, also known as the bipartisan Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption Provision, and urge you to withdraw the recommendation.\r\nSection 1504 supports the Treasury Department\u2019s mission to help ensure a more stable operating environment for U.S. and U.S.-listed companies, to strengthen national security, and to protect the capital of American investors. The Treasury Department's position that the information in Section 1504 payment disclosures may not be \u201cmaterial\u201d is contrary to the stated views of investors and to the clear intent of Congress.\u00a0 Section 1504 is the product of many years of bipartisan deliberation by Congress and at least five years of thorough consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which included significant consideration of investor interests.\r\nWe urge the Treasury Department to examine the SEC\u2019s extensive comment record, containing statements from investors with nearly\u00a0$10 trillion in assets under management.\u00a0Those comments, from a broad cross-section of investors, make clear they support the law because it will help them better assess and mitigate material investment risks. Today, as oil, gas, and mining projects enter increasingly dangerous and conflict-prone frontiers, investors need full disclosure to guide their decision-making and to protect themselves from social, political, sanctions, expropriation, reputational, regulatory, and other risks.\r\nWe also disagree with the Department\u2019s assertion that Section 1504 would \u201cimpose significant costs upon public companies that are widely held by all investors.\u201d Section 1504 is a reporting requirement, not an onerous regulation that significantly burdens oil, gas, and mining companies that are operating within the bounds of law. Today, there is broad agreement among those companies about the importance of project-level payment transparency. Indeed, major successful U.S.-listed oil companies like BP, Shell, Total, and the world\u2019s largest mining companies, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, have been reporting their project-level payments to governments under equivalent EU requirements for years. Even state-owned firms such as Rosneft, Gazprom, and CNOOC have reported their project-level payments. A repeal of the law would seriously undermine global transparency and anti-corruption efforts, and undercut our allies who followed U.S. leadership by enacting and implementing their own disclosure measures.\u00a0\r\nA common global standard simplifies compliance for multinational companies. Repeal of this rule would eliminate the equivalence that currently exists with the EU, Canada, and Norway, and would actually raise compliance costs for cross-listed companies that would have to prepare multiple reports. In fact, since reporting began, companies have called for a level playing field through a consistent global payment transparency standard.\r\nThe Treasury Department\u2019s recommendation to repeal the statute would forfeit U.S. leadership on this critical issue, at a time when it is vital the U.S. reaffirm its commitment to combating corruption. Repeal would also undermine our energy security and our national security. Ceding U.S. leadership on this important issue would encourage corrupt governments and their allies around the world, and weaken the efforts of our allies committed to this anti-corruption fight. We urge you to withdraw this recommendation.\r\nSincerely,\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t Press Contact \n\t\t\t\tDavid Carle: 202-224-3693", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/sen-leahy-sen-cardin-and-others-send-letter-to-mnuchin-on-sec-oil-gas-mining-transparency-rule"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8584070019423962, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}