Hill said to be first Catholic in Second District seat

Congressman-elect says he wants to listen, dialogue in Washington

Published: November 14, 2014

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett

Congressman-elect French Hill, a member of the Cathedral of St. Andrew, has a temporary office in the Simmons Tower in downtown Little Rock until he begins his position as a representative for the Second District.

Malea Hargett

Congressman-elect French Hill organized a Mass of Thanksgiving the day after he was elected to represent the Second District of Arkansas.

He is believed to be the first Catholic to hold the position since the district was created in 1853. He will represent White, Van Buren, Conway, Perry, Saline, Faulkner and Pulaski counties.

The Mass at Christ the King Church in Little Rock included patriotic songs and the lector was his daughter Liza. Other candidates for local and national offices and families were invited to attend.

“Win or lose, I wanted to invite our campaign staff and all our supporters to a Mass of Thanksgiving,” he said, “because I think all the candidates and their families really need a chance to thank God for the safety of the campaign and for those who were elected. They need prayers for strength to do right.”

Hill, a member of the Cathedral of St. Andrew, has a long history with the Catholic Church in Little Rock. He attended Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church and then moved to Christ the King Church when it was founded in 1967.

“I put my faith in God as my guide in a very noisy world that we live in,” he said.

He attended Catholic High School and fondly remembers many of his teachers: Msgr. George Tribou and Mike Moran for English and Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert for speech. He graduated in 1975 but stayed active after graduation as a CHS foundation board member and was a capital campaign co-chairman until he officially announced his candidacy in 2013. His son Payne is a freshman. (His daughter is a senior at Episcopal Collegiate High School).

“It was the best four years of my academic life,” he said of CHS.

Hill became known in Central Arkansas as the founder of Delta Bank and Trust. It was recently acquired by Simmons First National Bank and Hill has taken an executive position within the bank. His experience within the government came as a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the George W. Bush administration.

Hill said he will try to remember the words of President John F. Kennedy as he moves to Washington to represent central Arkansas: “Civility is not a sign of weakness.” He believes Pope Francis has demonstrated this axiom.

“He has humanized the papacy,” he said. “He is such a people person. It’s been heartwarming to see.”

Hill said he wants to be known for his ability to dialogue with anyone, in spite of their differences.

“I see the pope is trying to do that. I feel that in my own approach to public policy questions. I want to have a dialogue and talk about them. There is a lot of acrimony in Congress. It is unhealthy. The pope has been modeling good behavior.”

Hill’s wife Martha will keep their home running during the week and oversee the children’s activities in Little Rock. The Eagle Scout said he plans to continue to be active as a leader of Troop 30 at St. Paul United Methodist Church where his son is a Life Scout.

He sat down with Arkansas Catholic two days after his election to discuss his position on several issues of importance to the Catholic Church.

Religious freedom

Hill said he would like to see the Health and Human Services mandate to require free contraception in most health insurance coverage be repealed.

“Freedom of religion is enshrined in our constitution, not freedom from religion,” he said. “I think citizens here think it has gone overboard. We can’t freely express our personal religious beliefs in a public marketplace because we are going to either offend someone or aren’t in compliance with some fairness doctrine. This goes beyond health. I would like families to feel like they have choices and not mandates.”

Health care

The current Affordable Care Act “is a $2 trillion money machine that benefits hospitals and drug companies and hurts doctors and patients.” Hill supports the repeal of the act and replacing it with laws to improve weaknesses in health care laws.

He said he supported the creation of ARKids First under Gov. Mike Huckabee to ensure all children have health insurance coverage.

“It was controversial but not too controversial,” he said. “It was a Medicaid expansion … It was designed with the eye that the state could afford it. The Obama deal is a cram down.”

“I want more freedom, more personal choice, less government mandate but achieve some of the same objectives.”

Same-sex unions

Hill said he thinks the states should be able to define what “consenting adult relationships” are.

“I am someone who feels strongly in traditional marriage between a man and a woman to create a family,” he said. “That is the foundation of our society and our culture … Why can’t the people of a state have the ability to make a political decision about this issue as opposed to it being determined by the court?”

Life issues

Hill was endorsed by National Right to Life for his pro-life positions.

“Pro-life legislation is important. We need to value life and we need to demonstrate that we value life,” he said.

He said he has been particularly influenced by President George W. Bush’s views on life issues, including stem-cell research, as detailed in his book “Decision Points.”

“I would certainly reread it if I had to go vote on an issue like that,” he said.

Immigration

“I don’t think there is a consensus in our country and in our Congress in how to reform and enforce our immigration laws,” he said. “I have described myself as a thoughtful participant in the immigration debate. We should enforce our border and we should embrace the ability of people to legally immigrate here who want to start a business or receive an education or escape tyranny. We have a process for that, and we should reform it, embrace it, enhance it, but we do have a process for it.

“We have benefitted from going back to a more robust guest worker program for this country where seasonal workers can enter the U.S. and perform work that they have confidence that they can work here legally, be paid and go back to their home country and then return to do it all over again.”

Hill would not commit to supporting any legislation similar to the DREAM Act that gives legal status to certain high school graduates living illegally in the United States.

“We have got to reach a consensus,” he said. “I would listen thoughtfully on the arguments on how to reach the consensus.”

For any future DREAM legislation, he said, “I would have to see it to see what it says.”

Minimum wage increase

Hill voted against the minimum wage initiative that was passed by Arkansas voters Nov. 4. He said the U.S. is short 13 million jobs and raising the minimum wage increases will “inhibit” job creation.

“I think minimum wage jobs are stepping-stone jobs for those entering the workforce or trying to get educated and get additional skills,” he said. “We should be encouraging policies to get them the training they need and the education so they can move up the economic ladder.”

Education

Hill supports government-funded school vouchers. He is proud of his work with AR Kids Read, a nonprofit in Pulaski County providing volunteer reading tutors to elementary students reading below grade level.

He said he wants to see a focus put on improving public schools and offering better guidance counseling to high school students on options for them after the 12th grade: college, the military, trade school.

“I want every child to stay in school, graduate and then have a plan when they exit,” he said.