President Trump has handed the Treasury Department lead authority to impose sanctions on people who threaten stability in the Western Balkans, according to a memorandum dated Oct. 28 and scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Nov. 2.
The memo delegates the president’s powers under Section 8335 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. Delegations of this kind are routine and are how the White House assigns agencies to carry out new laws.
Who does what
Under the memo, the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the secretary of State, identifies people to be sanctioned, and Treasury handles the property-blocking measures, the termination of sanctions and any implementing rules. The State Department gets the law’s waiver authority.
What the law requires
The statute, codified at 22 U.S.C. 10704, says the president “shall impose” sanctions within 90 days of the law’s enactment on Dec. 18, 2025. The targets are foreign persons the president finds responsible for actions that threaten peace or territorial integrity in the region, that undermine democratic institutions, that involve serious corruption or human rights abuses, or that obstruct agreements including the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war, the Prespa agreement between Greece and North Macedonia, the Ohrid framework agreement and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 on Kosovo.
Sanctions include blocking property under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and denying visas. The secretary of State may waive them for up to 180 days at a time if it serves U.S. national security, with notice to Congress 15 days in advance. The law exempts humanitarian aid and expires after eight years.
The memo is dated more than seven months after that 90-day mark. The memo itself does not address timing, and the White House has not said whether it will issue new designations under the law.
Background
The United States has had a Western Balkans sanctions program since 2001, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has used it to designate officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere in the region. The NDAA provision sets out its criteria in statute.
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