On 22 August 2012 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued the final rule accompanying Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act...The rule requires companies using gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum to make efforts to determine if those materials came from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)...and, if so, to carry out supply chain due diligence to determine whether their mineral purchases are funding armed groups...It also requires companies to report publicly on their due diligence...In October 2012 the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Business Roundtable filed a lawsuit against SEC asking for the rule to be modified or set aside in whole or in part...In November 2012 we invited the companies listed...to respond to an article by Global Witness...[which] calls on the companies to issue a public statement outlining their position on the lawsuit...[Acer, AMD, AT&T, Dell, Ford, Honda, HP, Intel, Kemet, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, Panasonic, Xerox responded. Boeing did not respond and RIM declined to respond.] In December we invited [further] companies below to respond to a[nother] statement by Global Witness [Abbott Labs, Caterpillar,Emerson Electric, Kennametal, Northrop Grumman, NUCOR, Rockwell Automation, Rockwell Collins, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Toyota Motor, United Technologies Corporation, Whirlpool did not respond. Boeing Deere & Company, Honeywell, Xerox responded.] In January 2013 we also invited NAM to respond to the criticisms raised...NAM sent us a joint statement from themselves and...the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.