I spoke on the House floor this past week, talking about how America is better off because U.S. crude exports have more than doubled since January 2017, and production is up 12 percent so far this year alone. Since Congress lifted the 40-year ban on oil exports in 2015, U.S. producers now export between 1.5 and 2 million barrels of crude every day. Lifting the ban has filled pipelines and sparked a surge of investment in new technology and shipping infrastructure around the United States.

Today, U.S. crude imports have dropped 7.5 million barrels per day, as we rely on that increased domestic production and our friends in Canada. Lifting the ban has allowed us to be in competition with the two highest producing crude oil countries in the world, Saudi Arabia and Russia. According to the International Energy Agency, this year, the United States is expected to surpass Saudi Arabia and rival Russia as the world’s leading producer of crude oil. This comes as Germany is working with Russia on a pipeline that will deliver more than 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany.

During the recent NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump was right to strategically question Germany’s further reliance on Russia’s natural gas. Our liquefied natural gas and oil delivered to the Adriatic, North Sea, and Baltic seaports offer our allies in Europe strategic diversification both from OPEC and from Russian dominance for our friends in Western and Central Europe, their consumers, and their industries.

I commend President Trump for raising this important issue on his recent trip to Europe, and I am proud of our work in Congress to enhance America’s global energy leadership. I'm also pleased with the Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and the continued significant research budget for U.S. leadership in solar, battery storage, and nuclear. America is poised to continue global energy leadership. 

Arkansans Are Better Off

I joined joined House Republican Leadership for a press conference this past Tuesday morning to highlight how Arkansans are Better Off Now under Republican policies.

Arkansans are Better Off thanks to the actions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Families have more opportunities, higher-paying jobs, and more money in their pockets. In just over the past 12 months, Arkansas has added 7,200 jobs. I want to highlight some of the people in my district in central Arkansas, the seven counties around Little Rock, and what’s happening as a result of tax reform.

Just last month, Caterpillar (CAT), a great publicly-traded company in this country, has announced they’re going to build large medium-wheeled loaders in Little Rock…they’re adding 250 jobs and a substantial increase in the production of these pieces of equipment that are exported from the United States.

Secondly, we had Dr. Ben Carson in Little Rock recently. We talked about a part of the tax bill that I think is going to be very important to a city like Little Rock — that’s the opportunity zones. We had a chance to look at those and see the benefits that those will provide for investment in our inner city in Little Rock and in North Little Rock.

And finally, I want to highlight Fidelity Information Systems (FIS), another large, publicly-traded company with operations in my area. Because of regulatory policy change, we’re seeing an enhancement in capital formation. They are leading by adding to our venture center funding in Little Rock, where we have the largest fintech sandbox operating in our country and we are having people competing from all over the world to come to Little Rock for their venture capital opportunities.

Those are examples of how I believe because of jobs and capital formation, we’re better off in central Arkansas through the work of this Congress and this administration.

Arkansans deserve access to high-quality, affordable health care, and that includes giving individuals and families the tools they need to get out from under the burden of Washington-knows-best programs to take control of their own health care needs. Competition in our health care system will drive down prices, and this past week the House delivered on our promise for increasing health care options for American families.

I was proud to support the repeal of the medical device tax that is driving up health care costs, the restoration of access to medication and modernization and expansion of the use of Health Saving Accounts (HSAs), and to help lower health care costs that have been burning a hole in the pockets of families all over the country. We still have much work to do, but these three bills are positive step in providing Arkansans and Americans with more flexibility and freedom over their health care decisions.

Read my op-ed, "Arkansans Deserve Better Health Care" that was published in the Log Cabin Democrat this past Wednesday. 

Representative French Hill