Transcript: Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Dec. 22, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that aired on Dec. 22, 2024.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We go now to Little Rock, Arkansas and Republican Congressman French Hill.  Good morning to you, sir. 

REP. FRENCH HILL: Good morning, Margaret. Merry Christmas. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: And a Merry Christmas as well to you. This was quite the journey to get you back home and to get lawmakers to wrap up business this past week. No Democrat voted against this measure to keep the government open, but 34 Republicans did. Doesn't this show that Republicans really struggle to govern when they pass things along party lines. Won't they need to work with Democrats in this new Congress? 

REP. HILL: Well, I think it's very, very important that Speaker Johnson and incoming Majority Leader Thune have a steady plan together to work with the incoming Trump administration to prioritize the President's priorities, our priorities in the House and Senate, make sure we're on the same page. Because with narrow majorities, we've got to work together, and that's critical. And I think this last week demonstrated that. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you will have a fractured conference, a slim majority. Marc Short, who was the Director of Legislative Affairs in the first Trump administration, said this chaos shows just how hard it will be to tackle border and tax policies in 2025. What's the reality check on the timing of that and actually delivering on what Trump campaigned on?

REP. HILL: Well, I think Speaker Johnson and again, Majority Leader Thune, working with President Trump, want to use the budget reconciliation process that's still -still being discussed as to exactly what that procedure will be. But I believe actually that Republicans on both sides of the Hill are united that we want to unleash American energy for future production and an all of the above energy strategy. We want to secure the border. We want to fight inflation through supply side regulatory reforms. We want to roll back those regulations that are constraining the markets and constraining private business, having access to capital. So, I think we're on the same page, and I think budget reconciliation will be a way to start that process and also rein in unsustainable $2 trillion deficits.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but you can do a party line vote in the Senate there with the Republicans, but can you really get 218 Republicans to vote in the same direction when it was such a struggle just with keeping the lights on?

REP. HILL: I think we can. I think we demonstrated that year when we last year in the last Congress, when we put together the most comprehensive Republican only voting for border security, for an all the above energy strategy. Those are two priorities that President Trump campaigned on, we are united on those strategies, and I think we can get those priorities across the House floor as well as I say, rolling back unneeded regulatory burden on the American economy and small businesses to help fight inflation.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, one of the things that was stripped out of that initial bipartisan deal that Speaker Johnson had put together was a restriction on US investments in China. It would have affirmed presidential authority to impose sanctions on advanced technologies. Your Democrat colleague Rosa DeLauro insinuated publicly that Elon Musk came out against this because his real motivation was his extensive business ties to China. Do you share her concerns, and will this get passed?

REP. HILL: Well, look, President Biden had an executive order governing outbound investment. We've had a debate in Congress between the House and Senate on the best way to do that. We all want to limit American investment in dangerous, I would say, dual-use technologies that can be turned around and hurt the America's- America's national security, but striking that balance has been difficult, but I don't believe that was at the heart of the 1,500-page problem. I think people, a majority of members, clearly wanted a simple, straightforward continuing resolution, and not of what was turned into a large omnibus spending bill on top of a CR. So, I think President- I mean, Speaker Johnson, did a good job coming back around from that focusing on disaster assistance to the hurricane hurt states in the southeast, farm assistance for those farmers, and having a clean CR with an agreement with President Trump, with majority leader Thune, on how we would tackle reconciliation, to cut spending next Congress. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You are going to be the incoming chair of the House Financial Services Committee in the new Congress. It's one of 17 committees. Patrick McHenry, the outgoing Chair of House Financial Services was asked whether it matters that the Republican Party chose only male leaders. Take a listen.  

[START SOUND ON TAPE]

REP. PATRICK MCHENRY: For us to have no women chairs of committees is a huge mistake and really an unfortunate thing, because we have powerful, smart, capable, tenacious Republican women, that are capable of leading big committees and doing major things. 

[END SOUND ON TAPE]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why didn't the Republican Party select any female leaders? 

REP. HILL: Well that's a decision made by our steering committee, but I'm delighted in the House Financial Services Committee that we have strong, very passionate, successful Republican women like Ann Wagner of Missouri, Young Kim of California, Monica de la Cruz of Texas, and we're very excited to have Lisa McClain from Michigan our conference- our conference Chairwoman, and also Maria Salazar from South Florida, joining our committee. They will be active leaders in financial services policy making.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Quickly. I know you've been trying to restrict captagon, this amphetamine drug that the Assad regime was selling to prop up the dictatorship. Our teams in Syria filmed factories full of this stuff. What's going to happen now? 

FRENCH HILL: Well, we need the United States to be very active work with partners to support a free and democratic Syria. Secondly, we need to document the war crimes committed by the Assad regime, as it relates to all the people murdered, killed in prison, tortured in the- from the regime, and also track down the networks that were producing captagon. We will have support from the kingdom in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states to do that, but it needs to be stopped. But I'm proud of the work we did to interdict captagon and cut off the funding, because I think it absolutely contributed to the end of the Assad regime, and that's something to celebrate. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will be tracking what happens with that. Before I let you go, I do want to ask you as well. A source familiar with the investigation tells CBS News that tomorrow, the House Ethics Committee's work investigating former congressman Matt Gaetz alleged sexual misconduct and drug use will be released. last month on this program, you said 'it's up to that committee, but we don't want to set a precedent where we, under any circumstances, will release documents from that committee.' Do you still object?

FRENCH HILL: That's not- well I don't know that's how I would characterize what I said. I said it's up to that committee. I think they are- they have released documents before, but I think that's something they should do with a great deal of caution, because you open up a Pandora's box of a lot of other investigations over many, many years conducted by that committee. But if they've thought it through, reviewed the material and made that decision, that's their decision.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Congressman French Hill, thank you and have a Merry Christmas. We'll be right back.