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.