Chris Smith: “I urge my colleagues to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo Democracy and Accountability Act of 2018. Mr.…”

“I urge my colleagues to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo Democracy and Accountability Act of 2018. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their very strong support of this legislation and for their strong statements today. I think this is, again, another example of bipartisan legislation and the House uniting over a very egregious situation that is occurring in the DRC. I would point out to my colleagues that I have visited the DRC myself, been to Kinshasa, the capital, raised a number of human rights issues when I was there. But I also traveled to Goma, where there was terrible acts of bloodshed committed by both the government troops. As well as those that were combating the government, and even terrible acts by the peacekeepers, the U.N. peacekeepers, some years ago, where they were complicit in human trafficking, particularly of little children. {time} 1745 In my subcommittee, I chaired four hearings on this horrible practice of the peacekeepers themselves causing such violence against kids. There is now a much better situation, but it is still awful, and, again, we are now facing another serious crisis. I would also point out to my colleagues that Karen Bass and I had a trip planned to Kinshasa for August 24 and 25. We made part of that trip where we went to Ethiopia, but we were denied visas. We could not get visas to go to the DRC.…”