U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has blocked House Speaker Mike Johnson’s request to include the “MEGOBARI Act” in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to The Hill, citing sources.

The report states that last month, House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican) personally asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune (Republican) to add the act to the NDAA.

According to the publication, over the past three months, Thune has blocked the request to add the “MEGOBARI Act” to the NDAA for the second time.

The Hill notes that Johnson’s intervention in support of the “MEGOBARI Act” was unexpected.

“Speaker Johnson’s lobbying was welcome but seemed to come out of nowhere, one congressional aide said. 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,” a congressional aide told the publication.

Sources say that since November 21, Johnson has been trying to have aides reach out to both Republicans and Democrats to secure support for adding the “MEGOBARI Act” to the NDAA.

“Thune flatly refused,” said one aide.

For context, The Hill previously reported in September that Senate Majority Leader John Thune blocked the addition of the “MEGOBARI Act” to the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act at the request of Senator Marquiein Malin (Republican).