MEGOBARI Act

What it does

This bill requires the President to impose sanctions on certain foreign persons, including Georgian government officials, who are undermining Georgia's security or stability.

Specifically, the bill requires the President to impose visa-blocking sanctions and authorizes the President to impose property-blocking sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is involved with actions or policies to undermine Georgia's security or stability. Immediate family members of a sanctioned individual are also subject to these sanctions if they benefited from the sanctioned individual's conduct.

The bill also requires the President to impose visa-blocking sanctions on the following foreign persons if the President determines such persons knowingly engaged in significant acts of corruption or acts of violence or intimidation in relation to the blocking of Euro-Atlantic integration in Georgia:

• any individual who served as a member of the Georgian parliament or as a senior official of a Georgian political party on or after January 1, 2014;

• any individual who is serving as an official in a leadership position on behalf of the Georgian government; and

• any immediate family member of such officials who benefited from their conduct.

Additionally, for the purpose of potential imposition of sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the President must determine whether there are foreign persons who, on or after the bill's enactment, have engaged in (1) significant corruption in Georgia, or (2) acts to undermine Georgia's security or stability.

Summary by the Congressional Research Service, Jan 3, 2025 (Introduced in House). CRS summarizes bills impartially; it does not take positions.