House subcommittee hearing spotlights child labor, corruption in Congo cobalt supply and presses for stronger U.S. rules

Chairman Smith convened a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing to "examine the role of Chinese owned enterprises in fueling conflict, instability and human rights abuses in Africa, particularly in the mining sector," and called witnesses to testify on links between mineral extraction and violence.

The panel heard repeated testimony that cobalt, gold and other minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries fuel armed conflict and human-rights abuses. "This has got to stop," said Sasha Lehi Lesdev, identified in the hearing as a senior policy adviser at the Century, after describing child miners and forced labor in the DRC.

Why it matters: Witnesses and members said minerals used in phones and electric-vehicle batteries help finance armed groups and kleptocratic networks and create national-security vulnerabilities for the United States. Testimony cited estimates that the DRC supplies a dominant share of global cobalt and described gaps between existing laws or standards on paper and enforcement on the ground.

Key testimony and proposals

- "The extraction of valuable minerals has long been a double-edged sword for many African nations," Chairman Smith said in his opening statement, framing the hearing around human-rights harms and instability.

- Sasha Lehi Lesdev testified that Chinese state-owned and private actors have been central to opaque contracts, moving metals through refiners and traders. He recommended sanctions and an illicit-gold task force, stronger banking alerts and judicial accountability to dismantle the networks that enable corruption and smuggling.

- Thierry Dangala, founder of Accountable Africa, urged creation of a single, rigorous definition of "clean" minerals and stronger on-the-ground certification. "If we can get buy-in from the local school principal, the local fishers, the mothers of the children," he said, "they do have buy-in on the environment." He also recommended competition-driving OFAC licensing to reward traders who share transaction data.

- Witness Joseph Mulalanguramu emphasized the national-security implications of reliance on the DRC’s minerals, arguing that Chinese dominance of extraction and refining creates strategic vulnerabilities and can worsen regional instability.

- Obert Boer described environmental damage and weak enforcement in Zimbabwe and other countries and urged formalizing artisanal and small-scale miners to reduce illegal operations and abuses.

Members’ concerns and bipartisan proposals

Ranking Member Jacobs linked exploitation to weak governance and urged reinstatement and enforcement of anti-bribery statutes she said the administration had paused. Chairman Smith and several members recommended legislation and procurement rules to block minerals made with forced or child labor from U.S. supply chains, citing the recently reintroduced Cobalt Supply Chain Act that would create a rebuttable presumption against importing goods tied to cobalt processed in the People’s Republic of China.

Several witnesses and lawmakers called for more funding and technical assistance to empower local certification, strengthen the DRC’s oversight of mines and support education and livelihood programs to reduce child labor. "Education is one of the most effective ways to reduce child exploitation in the mining sector," a witness said, describing programs that tie community agreements to school attendance and conditional cash transfers.

What was not decided

No formal actions, votes or binding orders were recorded in the hearing transcript. Members and witnesses discussed a range of policy options — from sanctions and an illicit-gold task force to licensing and certification reforms — without producing a committee vote or a final directive during this session.

Ending

Witnesses urged coordinated U.S. action combining enforcement, incentives for responsible investors and support for community-level monitoring. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," Lesdev said, and members signaled interest in follow-up oversight and legislation to tighten due diligence and procurement rules.