Ben Affleck to host Sen. Kerry Tuesday for Africa panel

Academy Award-winning actor Ben Affleck will host a panel discussion in Washington Tuesday featuring Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to discuss U.S. foreign policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In making the trip to D.C., Affleck follows the footsteps of his wife, actress Jennifer Garner, who testified before a Senate committee last week on the need for early childhood education.

Tuesday's event is sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The Holocaust Museum, and Affleck's own Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI). It will take place at CSIS headquarters downtown and will feature experts on African regional policy.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry's travels have spanned the globe, including multiple trips to central Africa.

Affleck founded his non-profit ECI last spring, in an effort to assist community organizations working to rebuild the war-ravaged nation. "There are people who live in the communities ... who understand the relationships there, and who are Africans finding solutions to African problems," he said in March.