The following is a transcript of an interview with Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, which aired on “Face the Nation” on May 28, 2023.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s where we turn now to French Hill, Republican congressman from Arkansas, who joins us from Little Rock. Hello to you, sir.
REPRESENTING. FRENCH HILL: Margaret, nice to be with you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let’s pick up where we left off. The leader says 150 Republican votes can be cast by the GOP. Do you have those votes for this deal?
REPRESENTING. HILL: I’m sure we’ll get those votes after people have looked at the text, discussed it with their colleagues, compared it to our goals. President McCarthy is the only person who has shown urgency on this since his swearing in and since that first meeting with President Biden to arrive at a reasonable and responsible increase in the debt ceiling. He had red lines, Margaret, no tax increases and no clean debt ceiling. And I think he succeeded.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. So it will be one bill, one vote.
REPRESENTING. HILL: That’s my point.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, that decision was made, it seems to be based on what you’re indicating here. In terms of votes, however, you still need to be able to get those 150 Republicans to vote. Hakeem Jeffries says he can put Democrats in line. We will see. Can you guarantee that this vote will take place and be successful on the first try?
REPRESENTING. HILL: I believe so. I will tell you why. We had our plan, which we adopted as you noted on April 26, with the full support of the American people to stop the avalanche of spending and every element we had to limit the rate of growth limiting the amount of–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s in the past tense. I don’t want to talk about the past, this bill is dead. We’re talking about the case.
REPRESENTING. HILL: No, no, no, it’s not dead, no no no–
(TRANSPARENCY)
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to know if you can actually deliver that on Wednesday –
REPRESENTING. HILL: We can. We can.
MARGARET BRENNAN: This Wednesday is when the speaker says it will happen on this tentative agreement.
REPRESENTING. HILL: Okay, well, what I mean is it’s not in the past tense. Each of the elements that we had in the bill of the 26th is reflected in this negotiated agreement and this principle that the speaker reached with President Biden, and that is why I think we will have these votes on Wednesday because we limit the rate of growth, we reduce expenses, we recover unnecessary expenses and decisions. We’re stopping wasteful spending and growing our economy by relaxing regulations and encouraging more people to get back to work.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Well, Chip Roy and others in the Freedom Caucus said they didn’t even want the vote to happen and they would try to block it.
REPRESENTING. HILL: Okay, well, they have to read the text and visit their colleagues.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Have you read it? Because we didn’t.
REPRESENTING. HILL: No, I’m going to read it this afternoon when it’s posted on the House website.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. So in terms of what’s written, there are differences here in terms of the spending freeze and what year we’re comparing it to. Republicans and Democrats take a very different turn on this, what is really going on in the text?
REPRESENTING. HILL: Well, we’re going to limit the rate of spending growth for non-military and non-veteran spending, it’ll be at FY22 levels, defense and veterans will be at FY23 levels, and then we maintained the good growth and spent 1% a year for six years. It was a key part of the April 26 bill where we proposed 1%. 100 growth for 10 years. We’re also going to move to a Massey-Emmer approach on supply bills, which finally opens up and strengthens the supply process, that if all 12 bills don’t pass by September 30, then we move to continued resolution at 99% of current year spending levels. This is a huge incentive for Congress to do its job and pass the 12 bills in the House and Senate. And that’s the issue of spending. And then we — we get back, as you noted, the COVID relief money, other decisions, we stop the first year of the 10-year increase in the IRS budget that’s nearly $2 billion dollars of fixed expenditures. Of those $80 billion that was to be spent over 10 years to hire IRS agents.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Well, we’ll wait to see that text as well. I would like to come to what you just talked about in terms of freezing. I mean, every American knows this, that your dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to because of inflation. This may be a problem for you in the Senate, because we already have Republican Senator Lindsey Graham criticizing this deal. And defense goes up, as you call it, because it doesn’t keep up with inflation. How do you sell this? Because he just… he… he said national security threats were increasing. And it’s a disaster for the Navy and a victory for China and Putin. How do you respond to that?
REPRESENTING. HILL: Well, number one, I think that’s why President McCarthy and President Biden agreed that the $888 billion spending level, which was the president’s level plus 3% inflation, was exactly what point contained in this negotiated agreement. I would also say listen, we’ve had a gross overreaction in fiscal and monetary policy since the pandemic. And that’s why House Republicans are trying to slow spending growth and get back to pre-pandemic normalcy, and all areas are going to have to sacrifice. But listen, the speaker and the president agree, we want to save defense perverts, save veterans, and take Social Security and Medicare off the table. And those are big chunks of the federal budget.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it has to go through the House and then through the Senate. It therefore seems that there is still a great deal to convince on the points you have just made. Are you worried that the reach of this isn’t big enough that you can then go back and sell to some of your skeptical caucus members who wanted to see bigger cuts?
REPRESENTING. HILL: Well, I’m one of those who wanted bigger cuts, but I also recognize that we only control the House of Representatives. We have to get it through the Senate, as you note, and the Biden administration controls the central government here. If they were so concerned about the debt ceiling, they could have negotiated with McCarthy much earlier, they could have even raised the debt ceiling when they controlled both branches of the House and Senate and the federal government in December, but they didn’t. . So that’s the world we have. It’s not the spending cuts I would prefer. But when you look at PAYGO on regulatory costs, it’s a big change. When you look at the Massey-Emmer rating on 99% CR on credits, that’s a big change. So I think we are in the right direction. And that absolutely follows the goals of House Republicans as set out on April 26.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Congressman, thank you so much for coming to give us some insight into what Republicans are putting on paper right now. FACE THE NATION will be back in a minute. Stay with us.
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