A ninth generation Arkansan, French Hill is the 22nd Member of Congress to represent central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected on November 4, 2014, and began his first congressional term in the 114th Congress on January 3, 2015. He won reelection to serve in the 115th, 116th, and 117th sessions of Congress.
| In 2015, the U.S. Air Force elected to close the intelligence unit at Little Rock Air Force Base and move it, and the personnel, to Fort Smith where the unit would be engaged in an unmanned aerial command center. This would leave a 10,000 square foot state-of-the-art, Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF), worth more than $10 million, empty at Little Rock Air Force Base, mission less, and at risk of losing its classified certification. The former Adjutant General of the Arkansas National Guard, General Mark Berry, came to my office and we invited Air Force Sec. Deborah Lee James to visit Little Rock Air Force Base. We convinced Secretary James that this was an outstanding opportunity for a new mission at the Little Rock Air Force Base, a mission that could take advantage of our outstanding information technology and cyber expertise in central Arkansas and our academic leadership at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas. She agreed! |