Washington would like to formally register its disapproval of Cairo’s authoritarian backsliding, and now can we please get back to business as usual.

Despite a chorus of criticism from human rights groups, the Obama administration is showing no interest in paring back a $1.3 billion-a-year military aid package that forms the crux of the bilateral relationship. The State Department’s request for fiscal year 2017 seeks the full amount, and the two countries late last year resumed joint production of M1A1 main battle tanks following the program’s suspension after the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Even so, the State Department has remained publicly critical of Egypt’s record under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, denouncing a pattern of excessive use of force including “unlawful killings and torture” and mass arrests of political opponents in its latest annual human rights report. US Secretary of State John Kerry, a strong Sisi backer, also put the president on notice that repression will only fuel more terrorism during a bilateral strategic dialogue in Cairo last August.

“The return of authoritarian rule that began with the military’s July 2013 takeover has left US policymakers in a quandary,” the Congressional Research Service summarized in a Feb. 25 report to lawmakers and their staffs. “President Obama and members of his administration continue to express the view that authoritarian governance and the denial of basic human and political rights create conditions conducive to the growth of violent extremism. On the other hand, maintaining a partnership with the government of Egypt is still viewed as important for goals of regional stability and security.”