Meet French
French Hill is the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. As chair, he directs and leads six subcommittees and appointed task forces and leads 30 Republican members of the committee. He works in a bipartisan fashion with the 24 Democratic members.
During French’s chairmanship in the current Congress. 50 hearings have been convened, 194 witnesses have testified, 10 markups have been held, 103 bills have been passed by committee, and 44 bills have been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. 10 bills have been enacted into law, signed by President Trump.
In his work as Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Committee in the previous Congress, French led the new subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. Bills that French authored are in the U.S. Senate for deliberation currently. Crafting a framework for the regulation of digital assets is a goal of the Trump Administration. French’s bill, the Clarity Act, passed the U.S. House with 76 Democratic votes. This regulatory framework will increase jobs and capital investment in the U.S by providing a framework for the use of digital assets by all Americans and particularly Arkansans.
Four years ago, French was named to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by then Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he was reappointed to the Committee by Speaker Mike Johnson. Serving as the only Republican member on the Committee with a deep background in international economics and finance, French is working to reduce China’s economic coercion around the world and enhance sanctions and penalties for terror, drugs, and illicit finance. He has been deeply involved in the policy in the Western Hemisphere.
In previous Congresses, French served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. French served as the Vice Chairman of the Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee and has continued to advocate for religious freedom for all people of all faiths around the world.
French is the founder and chairman of the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad that advocates on behalf of Americans who are wrongfully held abroad and their families. This caucus works to ensure transparency for families and holds the Biden Administration accountable for the policies that have led to Americans becoming bargaining chips by our enemies. French’s work was critical to the hostage situation in the Middle East after the October 7th invasion of Israel.
French serves as the Co-Chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Caucus (there are three HCBUs in Greater Little Rock). Additionally, he leads the House Entrepreneurship Caucus and the House Foreign Direct Investment Caucus.
Prior to his congressional service, French was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for over two decades as a community banker and investment professional. He was the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and employed 100 people. Prior to starting Delta Trust in 1999, Congressman Hill was a senior executive with Regions Bank of Little Rock.
Prior to his community banking work in Arkansas, French Hill served as a senior official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
From 1989 until 1991, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for corporate finance. In 1991, following his service at the Treasury, President Bush appointed French, at age 34, to be Executive Secretary to the president’s Economic Policy Council (EPC), where he coordinated all White House domestic and international economic policy. For his leadership and service at the Treasury and the White House, French was awarded the distinguished service award by then-U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady in January 1993.
Prior to his service in the Bush administration, French was a commercial and investment banker as well as a staffer for then-U.S. Sen. John Tower (R – TX) and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Throughout his forty- year career, French Hill has been active in civic affairs. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and served as the 2013 chairman of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. He also served on the board of Arkansas Children’s Hospital for 15 years and devoted service on the boards of the Arkansas Arts Center (now Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts) and Historic Arkansas Museum. French has received numerous awards and recognition for his longtime support of the Boy Scouts of America, as well as arts and humanities, tourism, and historic preservation in Arkansas. In 2019, he was awarded the nation’s distinguished Eagle Scout recognition by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Ninth-generation Arkansan French Hill is a magna cum laude graduate in economics from Vanderbilt University. He and his wife, Martha, have a daughter, Liza, and a son, Payne. The Hills reside in French’s hometown of Little Rock.
Members of the House are responsible for introducing and voting on federal legislation, representing the interests of their constituents, and providing oversight of the executive branch. Key powers include drafting bills, serving on committees, approving the federal budget, and voting on matters of national policy, including declarations of war and presidential impeachments.