Hill confident country, Arkansas ‘will figure it out’ dealing with crisis

U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-Little Rock) is upbeat and positive about how the country and state of Arkansas will be responding to the ongoing global pandemic that has slowed down everything.

“We’ll figure it out,” he told Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on ESPN Arkansas’ statewide Morning Rush on Wednesday morning.

In some places across the country where the number of cases is relatively low per capita (and Arkansas is one of those compared to major metro areas) starting to re-open things is the hot topic these days.

“Potentially we could start to see that in businesses in May,” Hill said. “It’ll ultimately be up the governor working with businesses. It’ll be different across the country. Asa Hutchinson is doing good job pacing it and he’ll encourage it to head upward.”

Hill also understands the importance of sports to much more than just the fans.

“Sports is a major driver of economic activity,” he said. “Just think of the high school and the competitive level before you even head off to college … the soccer tournaments, tennis tournaments, basketball tournaments.

“These are big businesses in our towns.”

Hill said he feels like they will get it worked out soon.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to do that in a safe way from a public hygiene point of view,” he said. “I bet we figure it out. This is America.

“We’re innovative. We have ingenuity. We’re going to get our kids out safely to play college sports and high school sports. We’re going to figure out a way to let people watch that in a safe way.”

He’s positive, probably based on the information he’s getting on the accelerated pace the entire medical and research industries have attacked the health crisis.

“I’m convinced we will,” he said about getting things back. “That’s the way we are. We’ve got to have more testing, more therapeutics and treatment and we’re going to bring this country back.”