Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) is threatening to hold military aid to Egypt unless the country makes progress on human rights.
“I intend to exercise fully the Committee’s oversight responsibilities and my authorities to hold foreign military funds and the sale of arms to the government of Egypt, if it does not take concrete, meaningful, and sustainable steps to improve the human rights conditions in the country,” Cardin said in a statement.
It’s a shift for the panel after Cardin took over following the indictment of former Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). Those charges included allegations Menendez took official actions to benefit the government of Egypt in exchange for money and other benefits.