House Member Urges Senate Vote on Georgia Sanctions Bill
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he sent a “friendly note” to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Dec. 16 indicating that he hopes the upper chamber can take up a bill to sanction officials who undermine democracy in the Republic of Georgia.
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Wilson said the legislation is urgently needed to counter worsening repression in the former Soviet republic, which the State Department highlighted in its latest annual report on human rights (see 2508130028). “We need to do all we can to give encouragement to the people who want free and fair elections in Georgia,” Wilson told Export Compliance Daily.
The Mobilizing and Enhancing Georgia’s Options for Building Accountability, Resilience and Independence Act, or the Megobari Act, passed the House in May and cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March (see 2505060054 and 2503270032), but it has yet to get on the full Senate’s crowded agenda.
“I’m not giving up,” Wilson said. “John Thune is just one of the finest people I know, and I’m just so hoping that he will bring up Megobari.”
A Thune spokesperson declined to say if or when the Senate will take up the bill. "We don’t have any scheduling announcements at the moment," the spokesperson said.