Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin has been blocking the passage of the MEGOBARI Act, unnamed congressional sources told The Hill. The bill would increase sanctions on Georgia if the country does not reverse its democratic backsliding, but also would provide incentives, including defence aid and possible visa liberalisation, if democratic reforms are undertaken.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in May, but has since stalled in the Senate.
Sources told The Hill that Mullin, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma and a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, is personally blocking the bill.
On two separate occasions, sources said that Mullin succeeded in preventing the bill from being passed, including in late August, when he convinced Senate Majority Leader John Thune to remove the bill from the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA), a larger piece of legislation.
Senator Rand Paul, also a Republican, also opposes the MEGOBARI Act, but the sources said Mullin has been more proactive in preventing it from being passed.
‘There’s a lot of people on the record supporting this legislation’, an anonymous congressional source told The Hill.
‘It was almost included in the NDAA last year. It has passed the House and it was passed out of committee this year. So the fact that one senator could kill it is quite disappointing’.
Mullin himself told The Hill that one of the main reasons he opposes the legislation is that there is a ‘better relationship’ with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
‘I understand kind of where they’re [Georgian Dream] trying to get to. I also understand the direct influence that Russia is having and kind of stirring up disdain, I guess, inside the government’, Mullin said.
‘And so I want to be able to work with them before we throw sanctions on them. I want to work with them to see how they can, you know, have true sovereignty, to get away from the overbearing influence of Russia’.
Mullin has a history with Georgia that predates his time in the Senate, and has previously been critical of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
While a member of Congress, Mullin penned an op-ed for The Hill in 2020 under the headline ‘The United States must stand with Georgia’s fight for freedom’.
In the article, Mullin described Georgian Dream’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili as a ‘a Russian-schooled oligarch who made billions in the corrupt feeding frenzy on abandoned Russian industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union’.
Mullin also criticised the Georgian government for creating difficulties with two US companies trying to do business in Georgia — the Conti Group and Frontera Resources.
The owner of Frontera Resources donated to Mullin’s political campaigns in the following years, although the amounts appear to be relatively small.
Since then, Georgia’s relations with Frontera Resources have improved.
Nonetheless, Mullin told The Hill that his opposition to the MEGOBARI Act is unrelated to the Frontera Resources issue.
‘It doesn’t make any difference what company it is’, Mullin said, referring to his support for the companies.
‘If we’re going to have investments there, they need to make sure their investments, meaning US investments, that investments need to be protected and have confidence that they’re going to be able to see the project through without being threatened to be taken over. I think we’re there. But some of the intergovernment [sic] politics is dicey. I mean, it’s a tough area’.
Attempting to explain his reasoning, Mullin claimed that some of his colleagues appeared to be misinformed about the situation in Georgia.
‘What I’m saying is, just, let’s make sure we have the ties,” he said. “When’s the last time we went there and visited them? When’s the last time you talked to them? When had we actually had diplomatic visitations [sic] from them, understanding where they’re moving, for the people that’s wanting [sic] the [MEGOBARI Act] put in place’, Mullin told The Hill.
Mullin’s opposition to the bill has rankled some within his party.
‘That a senator is going this far to defend the pro-China government in Georgia is puzzling and very swamp-like behavior. This is a regime that is constantly defending China and Iran and just today was insulting President Trump’, a Republican congressional aide told The Hill.
The bill — Mobilising and Enhancing Georgia’s Options for Building Accountability, Resilience, and Independence (MEGOBARI, Georgian for ‘friend’) — received overwhelming support across party lines in a vote in the House of Representatives back in May, with 349 members of the House voting in favour and 42 voting against.
The act was first introduced by Republican Representative Joe Wilson amidst widespread protests against Georgia’s controversial foreign agent law in May 2024.
OC Media
