Georgia Rep. Martin Momtahan

ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives gave final passage Monday to legislation prohibiting companies owned or operated by the governments of Russia or Belarus from bidding on state contracts.

The bill, which the state Senate passed unanimously earlier this month, also sailed through the House unanimously with little discussion.

The House also passed a resolution in early March condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some of the troops Russia has used to wage the war have entered Ukraine from staging areas in neighboring Belarus.

The U.S. and its NATO allies have responded to the invasion by imposing economic sanctions on Russia.

“Senate Bill 562 is Georgia’s chance to implement our own embargo,” Rep. Martin Momtahan, R-Dallas, who carried the bill in the House, said Monday. “This is an opportunity to support Ukraine in the best possible way.”

House Democrats joined the vote to make the legislation bipartisan.

“What the Russians are doing is unconscionable,” said House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon. “We stand united as Americans right now in this moment.”

The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.