GOP Rep. French Hill named to coronavirus oversight committee

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Friday he had selected Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) to serve on the five-person committee charged with overseeing the Trump administration’s efforts to salvage the economy.

Hill, a third-term GOP lawmaker, is the second appointee to the congressional oversight panel created to monitor how President Trump, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve dole out billions in economic rescue authorized by the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill signed by the president last month.

A former banker, Hill was a deputy assistant Treasury secretary from 1989 to 1991 under former President George H.W. Bush, briefly overlapping with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell before joining the White House. Hill currently serves as the ranking member of the House Financial Services subcommittee overseeing national security and international development.

“French has been a leader serving his constituents in Arkansas and our nation as Congress crafted the most ambitious relief package in history,” McCarthy said in a Friday statement, praising his “important expertise that will guide his advocacy of immediate and effective solutions for the American people struggling from the despair during this crisis.”

Hill will be among four other appointees tasked with overseeing how the Treasury Department and Fed deploys $500 billion in industry-specific rescue funds and emergency loans to businesses facing peril because of the coronavirus. 

Hill joins Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) appointed to the committee by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), as the only other current member of the panel. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) must each appoint another person to the committee and agree together on a chairman. The panel is structured similarly to the congressional committee that oversaw the 2008 bank bailout.