Arkansas Congressman French Hill Praises President Trump’s Order Against Debanking

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Last week, President Trump signed an executive order against debanking. The purpose of the order is to guarantee fair banking for all Americans.

Arkansas Congressman French Hill (AR-02), who chairs the House Committee on Financial Services, issued a statement praising the order, saying,

“Targeting Americans for their political beliefs undermines the freedoms our country was built upon and should have no place in our financial system. I commend President Trump for taking decisive action to protect all Americans from politically motivated financial discrimination. The president’s executive order is an important step toward restoring fairness and accountability in our banking system, and the House Financial Services Committee will continue its work to investigate and prevent debanking for lawful businesses.”

Congressman Hill also published the following timeline regarding federal inquiries into debanking:

  • On April 29, 2025, the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, led by Subcommittee Chairman Barr, held a hearing to examine regulatory overreach and debanking.
  • On February 20, 2025, Chairman Hill, Subcommittee Chairman Dan Meuser (PA-09), Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr (KY-06), and Subcommittee Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01), sent a letter to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with recommendations to help clarify digital asset regulations and prevent debanking.
  • On February, 6, 2025, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, led by Subcommittee Chairman Meuser, held a hearing to discuss debanking efforts under the Biden-Harris Administration.
  • On May 21, 2025, the Committee passed H.R. 2702, the FIRM Act, with bipartisan support, to remove reputational risk from bank supervision. This bill directly aligns with the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to remove reputational risk from their exam process.
  • In March and April 2023, then-Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee Chairman French Hill, then-Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, and former Chairman Patrick McHenry sent multiple letters to the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, then-Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Martin Gruenberg, and then-Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, requesting information related to potential coordinated efforts by the agencies to deny banking services to digital asset firms and the ecosystem as a whole. 
  • In March 2023, then-Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee Chairman French Hill held a hearing to highlight the Biden Administration’s Attack on the Digital Asset Ecosystem.

We have written repeatedly about allegations that major financial institutions have deliberately debanked conservative individuals and organizations.

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor abruptly cancelled our account after designating our organization as “high risk.” Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. Other organizations have had similar experiences as well.

We deeply appreciate the Trump Administration and congressmen like Rep. French Hill leading the way against debanking. After all, banks that are too big to fail are too big to discriminate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Unpacking the Federal Court Decision Upholding the SAFE Act

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Above: Rep. Robin Lundstrum asks the Arkansas House of Representatives to support the SAFE Act in this file photo from April 6, 2021.

On Tuesday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act — a good law that protects children from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries.

In 2021, the Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed the SAFE Act. However, the ACLU and others sued to strike down the law. A federal judge in Little Rock blocked the state from enforcing the SAFE Act, but the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office appealed that decision. Tuesday’s ruling from the Eighth Circuit effectively ends the years-long lawsuit over the SAFE Act’s constitutionality.

Below are a few key highlights from the Eighth Circuit’s decision.

The Ruling Upholds the SAFE Act

The ruling effectively upholds the SAFE Act as constitutional.

The Eighth Circuit found the district court in Little Rock blocked the SAFE Act based on “incorrect conclusions of law.”

The SAFE Act does not violate the First Amendment or the Equal Protection Clause. It is lawful, and Arkansas can enforce it.

There is No Fundamental Right to Sex-Change Procedures

The Eighth Circuit rejected the idea that there is a “fundamental right” for children to obtain gender transition procedures.

The ruling found that Arkansas’ SAFE Act is reasonably related to legitimate state interests like restricting dangerous medical procedures and protecting children from harm. The court wrote, “The [SAFE] Act is rationally related to the state’s legitimate interest in protecting the well-being of minors.”

Sex-change procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones can leave children permanently scarred, sterilized, and at risk of serious health conditions.

The judges pointed out that children who use puberty blockers are at greater risk of low bone density.

The court noted that “risks for minors using cross-sex hormones include changes in cholesterol and blood thickness, blood clots (increasing stroke risk), and infertility.”

The judges also cited evidence that sex-change surgeries carry risks and can lead to lifelong regret.

All of these findings underscore just how dangerous these procedures are.

Arkansas Has the Authority to Regulate Sex-Change Procedures

The court emphasized that states have broad authority to regulate medicine—especially when it comes to children.

Doctors do not know the long-term effects these procedures might have on people, but men and women have come forward with chilling testimony about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without knowing the procedures’ risks, consequences, and alternatives.

Groups like the ACLU have claimed that the SAFE Act is discriminatory, but organizations like the Heritage Foundation have pointed out that simply is not the case. The SAFE Act does not deny healthcare to anybody. It just prohibits healthcare providers from performing or paying for sex-change procedures on children. That is something the State of Arkansas is free to do.

Arkansans Should Be Proud of the SAFE Act

We have said for years that we believed our courts ultimately would uphold the SAFE Act as constitutional.

There is a good reason why most lawmakers and most voters in Arkansas support the SAFE Act: It’s common-sense legislation that protects children from dangerous sex-change procedures.

This ruling from the Eighth Circuit underscores that the SAFE Act is a good law that Arkansans should be proud of.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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