I guess the fact that the New Year's Eve bombing in Alexandria got international attention has caused the authorities in Egypt to start taking this sort of thing more seriously. The perpetrator of a Christmas massacre of Copts last year just got the death penalty:
A court in southern Egypt on Sunday convicted and sentenced to death a Muslim man for his part in last year's Christmas drive-by shooting outside a church that left six Christians and a Muslim guard dead, judicial officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_christmas_attack_3Perhaps the Congressional hearing will put additional pressure on the authorities in Egypt and encourage them to stop treating their Coptic minority like second class citizens. It would be wise for the Coptic community to get as many people as possible to the hearings. There is power in numbers.