Egypt ripped at Senate foreign aid hearing
Senators urged to rethink $1.5 billion annual US aid package to Egypt as the country fails to progress in human rights.
A bipartisan panel of experts ripped Egypt as a floundering authoritarian state April 25 and urged Congress to rethink its annual $1.5 billion aid package.
The three witnesses at the Senate foreign aid hearing took turns describing Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as a military-run, economic basket case rampant with government-sponsored anti-Americanism. They argued that Egypt has lost the regional influence it had when the United States urged it to make peace with Israel in the late 1970s, making America's generous military assistance both anachronistic and counterproductive.
Lawmakers of both parties took the advice to heart.
"We need to reshape the relationship in a way that's sustainable," panel Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at the end of the hearing. "What I see is disheartening ... and as to the taxpayer dollars we have, I think we're obligated to spend them wisely, consistent with our values."
