The $1.1 trillion 2015 Omnibus Spending Bill includes a huge number of clauses covering a huge number of topics. It seems to cover everything imaginable, and that includes Egypt.
The US had suspended parts of its massive annual military aid to Egypt over the bloody crackdown in the wake of its summer 2013 coup d’etat. Legally, the US was supposed to suspend it all, but didn’t.
The new bill allows the State Department to bypass requirements for a return to democracy in Egypt, so long as he provides a secret justification to Congress in a “classified form.”
The bypass was heavily lobbied for by Egypt and its allies, allowing officials to present the bill as pressuring the junta to restore democracy while at the same time ensuring that they don’t actually have to.
