The long-term spending bill that Congress is expected to adopt this week would allow the State Department to resume military aid to Egypt despite ongoing concerns with the country's human rights record.

The bill specifies a number of requirements before the $1.3 billion in annual military assistance can resume but allows Secretary of State John Kerry to bypass them for "national security" reasons. The decision to reinstate that waiver authority, which was absent from the previous spending bill, marks a victory for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his regional allies and a blow to human rights advocates.

"Congress should not be making it easier for the administration to avoid confronting the issue in its dealings with the Egyptian government," Brian Dooley of Human Rights First said in a Dec. 10 statement.

The policy change giving the State Department more flexibility follows intense lobbying by Egypt and its allies — including the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — according to a House aide close to the issue. They see Sisi as a bulwark against Islamists in the region.