Press Releases

Congressman French Hill (AR-2) released the following statement today after the House passed the Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 185) by a bipartisan vote of 250 – 175:

“This bipartisan bill will modernize our federal regulatory process by increasing transparency and reducing costs to hardworking American taxpayers. Implementing our laws in the most cost-effective way while requiring public input at each stage of the regulatory process empowers individuals and communities in Arkansas and across America. I will continue to support legislation that gives a larger voice to taxpayers and reduces the burdensome red tape of the federal government.”   

H.R. 185 was introduced on January 7, 2015, by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and would modernize the nearly 70-year-old rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure Act. According to the House Judiciary Committee, H.R. 185:

• Requires agencies to choose the lowest cost rulemaking alternative that meets statutory objectives (while permitting costlier rules when needed to protect public health, safety, or welfare, if the added benefits justify the added costs).
• Improves agency fact-finding and identification of regulatory alternatives.
• Requires agencies to use the best reasonably obtainable science.
• Provides on-the-record but streamlined administrative hearings in the highest-impact rulemakings—those that impose $1 billion or more in annual costs—so interested parties can subject critical evidence to cross-examination.
• Requires advance notice of proposed major rulemakings to increase public input before costly agency positions are proposed and entrenched.
• Strengthens judicial review of new agency regulations.

About Congressman French Hill

J. French Hill, 58, is the 22^nd Member of Congress to represent central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives.  A ninth generation Arkansan, he was elected on November 4, 2014, and will serve on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services for the 114^th Congress.  Prior to his congressional service, Mr. Hill was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager and was founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp in Little Rock.

Prior to his community banking work in Arkansas, Mr. Hill served as a senior official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Prior to his Executive Branch service, from 1982-84, Mr. Hill served on the staff of then-U.S. Senator John Tower (R-TX) as well as on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

Mr. Hill is a magna cum laude graduate in Economics from Vanderbilt University.  He is married to the former Martha McKenzie of Dallas, Texas, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKenzie Hill, and a son, William Payne Hill.  The Hill family resides in Little Rock.