President Obama’s top national-security aides are recommending that the U.S. suspend foreign aid to Egypt in response to the Egyptian military’s overthrow of the country’s first freely elected leader, according to the Associated Press.

The Obama administration has so far refused to label the Egyptian military’s removal of former president Mohamed Morsi as a coup, which would, per a congressional statute, require halting almost all assistance to the country. However, the administration has argued that preserving such aid, which amounts to about $1.5 billion a year, is in America’s national-security interest. (The president has, however, delayed the delivery of new F-16 fighter jets and cancelled a joint military exercise with the Egyptian government.)

Officials within the administration say that Obama has been considering the proposal to cut off aid for at least a week, but will wait to make a decision until Congress has voted on his request to use military force in Syria.