SRBIJA Act: Wilson and Keating Seek Sanctions on Serbia
Reps. Joe Wilson and Bill Keating introduced the SRBIJA Act, seeking sanctions, visa bans and an end to the US-Serbia strategic dialogue.
Two US congressmen, Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, and Bill Keating, a Democrat from Massachusetts, introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives on August 27, 2026, seeking sanctions and visa bans on Serbian officials and an end to the strategic dialogue between Belgrade and Washington. Both men sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where Keating is the ranking Democrat.
The bill’s full name is the Supporting the Rule of Law, Building Institutional Justice, and Accountability Act, shortened to the SRBIJA Act. It calls for financial sanctions and visa bans on individuals who contribute to destabilizing the Western Balkans, support Russia’s malign activities, undermine democratic institutions, engage in corruption or violate human rights. To take effect, it would have to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by President Donald Trump. For now, it remains only a proposal.
What Wilson said when introducing the bill
Wilson issued a statement alongside the bill’s introduction, sharply criticizing the Serbian president.
President Vucic has sided with war criminal Putin, the Chinese Communist Party and the terrorist regime in Tehran, and against the rule of law. Mass anti-corruption protests continue to rock the country, while Vucic tries to divert attention with warmongering rhetoric and by destabilizing the region. The voice of the people of Serbia must be heard!
Wilson said on August 27. In the same statement, he added that the people of Serbia deserve better. Keating struck a more measured tone that same day but was just as clear in his own message, saying that democracy, the rule of law and the fight against corruption must remain central pillars of the relationship between the two countries.
Keating: Congress won’t back further dialogue until issues are resolved
The next day, August 28, Keating spoke separately to the Insajder website, offering a fresher and more detailed assessment of the bill, while Wilson’s statement from the day before was simply repeated in the same piece.
This bill sends a strong signal to President Vucic about the state of relations between Serbia and the United States, and that the pillars connecting the people of Serbia and America, democratic government, the rule of law, media freedom and free and fair elections, are essential to strengthening our relationship. Since President Trump took office, I have pointed out that these issues have not received enough attention in the Serbia-US strategic dialogue, and I think this bill now makes clear that Congress will not support the next round of dialogue unless these issues are resolved.
Keating told Insajder. He added that the bill should remind Serbia’s government that Congress is watching developments in the region closely.
What the bill actually demands
The bill calls on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to suspend the State Department’s participation in the US-Serbia Strategic Dialogue unless the meetings address Serbia’s relations with Russia, China and Iran, free and fair elections, the fight against corruption and public procurement, rule-of-law reform, press freedom and freedom of assembly. Absent that, the bill’s text adds, no State Department employee should take part in the dialogue or spend funds Congress previously appropriated for that purpose.
The bill sets a 180-day deadline for the secretary of state to report to the relevant congressional committees on Russian and Chinese influence in Serbia, progress in the investigation into the canopy collapse, the use of force against protesters, the state of the strategic dialogue, support for independent media and judicial reform.
The bill’s text explicitly cites the collapse of the canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad and the deaths of 16 people, calling for an independent and transparent investigation and for accountability to be established. It also references the protests students have led since the canopy collapse on November 1, 2024. srpske.rs reported on August 10, 2026, that prosecutors had filed an indictment against 13 defendants in three groups in that case, a development the bill’s call for a progress report now directly builds on, two and a half weeks later.
A committee that has acted before
The US-Serbia Strategic Dialogue began on July 16, 2026. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which both Wilson and Keating are members, had previously passed the Western Balkans Democracy and Prosperity Act, one of whose sponsors was Keating himself, enacted in December 2025. Before this bill, Wilson also introduced a resolution seeking to keep the 2027 session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly from being held in Belgrade, citing Serbia’s relations with Russia and China.
The bill now heads into the House’s legislative process. Before it can reach President Trump’s desk, it must first clear the relevant committee and win votes in both chambers of Congress; no date has yet been set for a debate on the SRBIJA Act.
