Key US lawmakers are questioning the wisdom of giving yet more money to Egypt when Cairo is sitting on more than half a billion previously appropriated dollars.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs panel on the Middle East, brought the issue up during an April 13 hearing on the State Department's budget request. She suggested the Obama administration's annual request for $150 million in economic assistance could prove a tough sell amid reports that the Egyptian government is blocking myriad US grants from moving forward.

"In Egypt we are facing a significant pipeline issue where between $500 million to $700 million in previous years’ funds have not been spent nor obligated," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Yet the administration continues to request $150 million in ESF [economic support funds] for Egypt, without presenting a concrete plan on how it will spend these unobligated funds and without having the flexibility to operate in Egypt that we once had."

Both Republican and Democratic staffers confirmed to Al-Monitor after the hearing that there is interest in the Foreign Affairs Committee to reallocate at least some of the Egyptian aid, if only to send Cairo a message. But they questioned whether there's much appetite to do so among their Appropriations Committee colleagues who actually hold the purse strings.