John Thune, Majority Leader of the United States Senate turned down a personal request by House Speaker Mike Johnson last month to advance a sanctions bill targeting Georgian government officials, The Hill article reads.

The Hill article says that according to two congressional aides, Johnson wanted to include the bill, called the Megobari Act, in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual must-pass Defense bill, which has broad support in the House and Senate.

According to the article, that it was the second time in three months that Thune had blocked a bipartisan request to include Megobari in the NDAA.

Based on The Hill sources, Johnson’s last-minute intervention on behalf of the bill came as a surprise to those following the NDAA process closely.

“We thought the bill was dead after Thune shot it down in September. We tried hard to get the bill into the NDAA at the last minute at the Speaker’s request but couldn’t overcome Thune’s opposition,” the two congressional aides told The Hill.

The article remarks that Thune had earlier blocked Megobari’s inclusion in the NDAA at the request of Senator Markwayne Mullin.

Mullin in 2020 accused the Georgian Dream government of cozying up to “American hostile rivals and enemies.” But in September, he told The Hill he had a good relationship with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and argued for using carrots with Tbilisi instead of the stick of sanctions.

“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,” he told The Hill at the time.