Like most Americans, ten years ago this week I watched with great horror and sadness as Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast and wreaked immense devastation on the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

At the time, I was just two months into my service as the president of the Rotary of Little Rock, Arkansas's largest civic club, which is blessed with remarkable energy, a broad international network, and a willingness to always go the extra mile to help those in need. After the storm passed, I asked our former president and former Rotary District Governor, Sam Chaffin, to serve as our leader on a Katrina Relief project. 

What was born as a modest project of immediate tools, materials, and donations developed under Sam's leadership into an extraordinary partnership epitomizing Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self."

Along with the Northlake-Mandeville Rotary Club of Mandeville, Louisiana, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Rotary International Foundation, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, Arkansas Rotarians helped families in the historic Lacombe community on the north shore of New Orleans’ Lake Pontchartrain. 

Dominated by ancient live oaks covered in Spanish Moss, Lacombe was settled by free Blacks in the early 19th century.  After an initial visit in November 2005, our club worked with our partners and helped some 60 families with home construction, repair, and restoration. 

Along the way, over 100 Little Rock Rotarians and their families made seven working trips to Lacombe, bringing over $550,000 in financial support to the effort and making lifelong friends with the wonderful families there.

The havoc of Katrina's wrath brought out the best American core traits of generosity and volunteer action. If we can bring that spirit with us every day in our interactions with family, co-workers, friends, and total strangers, then, collectively, we can make our great Nation an even better place.

Sincerely,

Representative French Hill

U.S. Rep. French Hill said Tuesday that the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration and five other nations delays Iran's nuclear program, "but in no way ends it."

"And in exchange for that they get complete and utter sanctions relief," the Little Rock Republican said, criticizing the administration's foreign policy at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Little Rock at the Clinton Presidential Center.

Cong. French Hill, R-Little Rock, told the Rotary Club of Downtown Little Rock Tuesday (Sept. 1) that the proposed deal with Iran will lead to a Middle East arms race and will unfreeze assets that the Iranians will use to fund terrorist organizations.

As a former executive in private business, I know firsthand the true value of accountability in the workplace. The success of any operation—whether it is in the private sector or in government—is dependent upon the employees and management being held to the highest standards for ethics, excellence, and customer service.

While the private sector excels at this, the federal government often fails miserably. And, there is seemingly no federal agency less committed to accountability than the one charged with providing care and benefits to our veterans.  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to make headlines for negligence, data manipulation, corruption, and failure to carry out its overall mission. Last year, with the help of substantial whistleblower testimony, congressional oversight and the VA Office of the Inspector General (VAOIG) revealed that 110 VA facilities were using “secret wait lists” to manipulate wait times for veterans seeking care from the VA healthcare system. Per the VAOIG, in Phoenix alone, the use of “secret wait lists” contributed to the deaths of 40 veterans.

The new VA hospital in Denver is more than $1 billion over budget. The $1.73 billion price tag that rests on the taxpayers’ shoulders is more than five times the original cost estimate. Earlier this year in Little Rock, we were exposed to a less disturbing, but equally perplexing, construction management failure when it was revealed VA spent $8 million to install solar panels that it never connected and then removed for a parking deck that was planned prior to the panels’ installation.

Despite these damning revelations, it took VA over a year to fire a single employee in connection with the “secret wait lists,” and there has been virtually no accountability for these major construction blunders...