Virginia
Trump administration's cancellation of internet access grants will cost Southwest and Southside Virginia, officials say
An Abingdon nonprofit organization, looking to expand broadband access and literacy, put its blueprints in place.
People Inc. of Virginia used $55,000 in federal money and worked with multiple Southwest Virginia nonprofits to create a plan that would help a variety of Southwest Virginia residents with digital literacy, coding and consumer protection, and would provide devices for doing schoolwork to children living below the poverty line, among other actions.
People Inc. set up similar plans in Northern and Central Virginia locations with another $70,000.
The next step was to execute the plans, and People Inc. applied for another $400,000 to do that, said Rachel Fogg, the organization’s communications director. The money would have come via the Digital Equity Act of 2021, passed into law during the Biden administration.
“If we receive that funding, that would be wonderful, and we’ll be able to put the digital opportunity plan into real practice,” Fogg said. “But right now, we do not know whether or not we will receive that funding.”
Virginia stood to receive more than $18 million from the Digital Equity Act for programs ensuring internet access for all, along with the skills to navigate it.
On the night of May 9, the Trump administration sent a letter to Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which was to distribute the block grant money. According to the letter, the program was canceled, DHCD Director Bryan Horn said during a Broadband Advisory Council meeting on Wednesday.
That notification and others nationwide came a day after President Donald Trump wrote on social media that the Digital Equity Act was “racist” and “unconstitutional” and that he planned to end it.
Trump claimed in his post that the Digital Equity Program the law created was a “woke handout” based on race. But a former Biden administration official who worked for a time in the Trump administration said that, according to the law, white Americans are the “vast majority” of those who stood to benefit.
Evan Feinman, a Lynchburg native based in Richmond, led the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program for four years under then-President Joe Biden and for a short time under Trump. He spent almost two years deeply involved with the Digital Equity Program, as well. It was not focused on race, but it did focus on elderly people, families living in poverty, veterans and others, including minority and ethnic groups, Feinman said.
“But actually, if you look at the balance of people that are eligible across the totality of it, the vast, vast, vast majority of people who are eligible were in fact white folks, either because they were rural, they were veterans, they were elderly or because they were poor.”
All references to the Digital Equity Act were scrubbed this week from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration website and other federal sites. The NTIA administered the program.
Information about the law remained on the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, where a page said it was meant to assist the elderly, poor people, military veterans, disabled people, state inmates transitioning back to society, English learners or others with low literacy levels, members of racial or ethnic minority groups, and rural residents.
“While, yes, you could design a program that was focused on supporting an ethnic minority, you would still have to show why they had a particular disadvantage compared to other folks,” Feinman said. “That was only one way a group became eligible for the program, [along with] being a veteran also works, being poor also works, being a rural person also works.”
‘Wasteful spending’ or ‘access to opportunity’?
The $2.75 billion law was passed as part of the larger Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It established three grant programs, with money already distributed for planning grants and competitive grants filed with the federal government.
The third aspect was called the Digital Equity Capacity Grant and was to distribute $1.44 billion in block grants to the states, each of which set up a digital equity plan that organizations would refer to in applying for money. The Biden administration approved Virginia’s plan in December.
Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax County, chairs the state’s Broadband Advisory Committee. During Wednesday’s meeting, Boysko said that a national bipartisan working group of broadband-centric state legislators this week discussed the possibility of a lawsuit to overturn the Trump administration’s actions on the capacity grants.
She asked Horn, the housing director, if Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was considering that possibility. Horn said he was unaware.
Messages on Wednesday and Thursday to Miyares’ office were not returned, nor were messages seeking comment from U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt County, and Rep. John McGuire, R-Goochland County.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, in a message sent through his communications director, said the “funds could probably be better spent elsewhere.”
He added: “In light of a $37 trillion debt burden on the country, I believe it is important to rein in wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars and promote fiscal responsibility.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s press secretary, Peter Finocchio, wrote in an email exchange on Thursday that Virginia has “made enormous strides” in broadband deployment, dedicating more than $900 million to connecting residents via the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative. It was the first state to submit required plans in order to receive Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD, funding of $1.48 billion, he wrote.
“Termination of Digital Equity Act funding will not impact Virginia’s work on broadband deployment,” Finocchio wrote.
While BEAD money is meant to complete Virginia’s work connecting all parts of the state, some may be directed to digital equity efforts if a state can show that it has ensured broadband service to all “unserved” and “underserved” locations, according to an FAQ that the NTIA posted.
The same document says that NTIA “strongly encourages” states to coordinate BEAD and Digital Equity Program plans.
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both D-Va., released statements that disapproved of the administration’s actions.
“If the Trump administration bothered to look beyond a title, it would see that the Digital Equity Act is about access to opportunity in rural communities,” Warner said through a spokeswoman. “The act of dismantling this program and continuing to block BEAD dollars months after they were approved undercuts bipartisan efforts to expand broadband to all Americans.”
BEAD has been stalled as the administration reviews aspects of its implementation, according to multiple published reports.
Kaine noted that the act was beneficial to older Americans, rural residents and veterans.
“I am troubled that the President is once again threatening to unlawfully withhold funding appropriated by Congress, and I urge him to reverse course,” Kaine said through a spokeswoman.
A focus on telehealth, workforce development, seniors
Fogg, from People Inc., said that it had planned to serve about 560 people over the grant’s three-year term. The organization’s plan noted that there “is a limited population of persons of color or non-English speakers within the region. Therefore, creating programs specifically for these populations is not considered the first priority.”
The plan would have focused on the elderly population in People Inc.’s service area: Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Grayson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe counties, along with Bristol and Galax. Core services would have been digital literacy, device access and affordability, privacy and cybersecurity, and broadband affordability.
Gate City-based Appalachian Community Action and Development Agency was among the nonprofits that partnered with People Inc. on the plan. Its executive director, Lisa Barton, said that recent cuts “seem to be here today, gone tomorrow, back the next day.”
She said she has learned from years in public service to keep a cool head about it.
“You learn to adapt,” she said. “You work with what you have to the best of your ability.”
But an aging population has a growing need to master online tools, she said.
“The internet is such an important tool for rural areas, especially, because sometimes we are so isolated, and transportation is an issue,” she said. “If we can help give people tools to do telehealth, you know, even apply for Social Security, those types of things online, to where they don’t have to drive an hour or two hours to a doctor, or to apply for something, or even to get groceries. You know that we owe it to them to help them all that we can.”
Another Southwest Virginia nonprofit, the Fairlawn-based New River/Mount Rogers Workforce Development Board, had applied for a capacity grant as well, with hopes of serving 150 people over two years. Leaders there said the board was focused primarily on workforce development.
Information the development board supplied said that it cost $3.48 million to provide workforce programming in 2023. Meanwhile, the employment programs it sparked resulted in $33.34 million saved in government benefits, while adding $14.5 million to the gross regional product and delivering $3.7 million in income tax revenue.
“It’s typically a 15-to-1 return on investment,” said the board’s executive director, Marty Holliday.
Other federal grant dollars are in jeopardy, too, which could do further damage to the region’s economy, Holliday said.
“People aren’t moving here, and people are aging here, so it is important to get every able body working,” she said, adding that “the federal government doesn’t give you money because they have a big heart. They give you money because they want taxpayers. We take our job very seriously. We want people to be in the system like the rest of us, paying taxes and living.”
It was unclear what other organizations in Southwest and Southside Virginia had applied for capacity grants, or how much of the $18.3 million was at stake in those parts of the commonwealth.
The Department of Housing and Community Development, citing the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, said it would not be able to provide requested information until May 29. Other requested information included how much capacity grant money NTIA had already provided to DHCD, if any.
An email to the NTIA press office went unanswered.
Boysko, the state senator who chairs the Broadband Advisory Council, said she is not worried about the people in her Northern Virginia district.
“The people who are going to lose out are not people who live in my neighborhood,” said Boysko, a small-town Alabama native who graduated from Hollins University. “They are the people who live on the Southside, in southwestern Virginia, in areas where there is not adequate assistance to help people get connected … and I think that’s a shame.”
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Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks at a press conference announcing there is a deal to authorize cannabis sales and put the legislation in the upcoming budget, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via Getty Images)
Richmond Times-Dispatch via Getty Images
For the last five years, Virginia cannabis has existed in a strange policy gap.
Adults could legally possess it. They could grow it at home. They could gift it. They could consume it. But if they wanted to walk into a licensed adult-use dispensary and buy a tested, labeled product from a regulated business, Virginia still had no legal retail market.
That contradiction has defined the Commonwealth’s cannabis story since 2021, when Virginia became the first state in the South to legalize adult-use possession. The original promise was bigger than decriminalization. It was supposed to be the beginning of a regulated commercial market—one that would move consumers away from the illicit market, create room for small businesses and farmers, and finally give the state an enforceable framework for products already being sold and consumed.
Instead, Virginia legalized the front end of adult use without opening the front door of the industry.
Since then, the state has been caught in political limbo. Retail implementation stalled after the 2021 elections. Republican control of the House slowed the process. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin later vetoed adult-use retail bills. Operators, investors and would-be applicants watched session after session with the same question: when would Virginia finally stop treating cannabis like something adults could legally have, but not legally buy?
The answer appeared close in 2026. With Gov. Abigail Spanberger in office and Democrats controlling the General Assembly, cannabis advocates expected the retail framework to finally move. Lawmakers sent the governor a bill that would have launched adult-use sales in 2027. Spanberger returned it with amendments, including a later sales date, a lower possession limit than lawmakers proposed, a higher future tax rate and tougher enforcement provisions. The legislature rejected those changes.
Then came the veto.
For many in the industry, Spanberger’s May veto landed as political whiplash. After years of delay, the state had once again stopped short of launching a legal adult-use marketplace. Worse, the veto came from a governor many advocates and operators expected to be more receptive than her predecessor.
For Brett Puffenbarger, CEO of Old Dominion Cannabis, the moment carried personal weight. Puffenbarger has spent nearly a decade in the cannabis industry and saw Virginia’s 2021 legalization as a chance to bring that experience back home.
“I have been in cannabis for almost a decade, and when Virginia first legalized adult use, it looked like an opportunity to build on that career in my home state,” Puffenbarger said via email. “I had been in Florida for years, but I was born and raised in Virginia. We moved back five years ago because we believed the Commonwealth would eventually open a regulated market. Now Old Dominion Cannabis is preparing to compete for cultivation and manufacturing licenses.”
That kind of long-range planning is common in cannabis. It is also risky. Markets can take years to open. Rules can change overnight. A state can legalize possession and still leave businesses waiting for a real path to licensure.
Virginia became a case study in that uncertainty.
The veto seemed to push the market another year down the road. But within weeks, the same framework came back in a different vehicle: the state budget. Spanberger, Sen. Lashrecse Aird and Del. Paul Krizek announced a compromise that would create a regulated adult-use retail market through budget language, with sales beginning July 1, 2027.
That turnabout changed the mood almost immediately.
“When the veto came down, we thought, ‘Here we go again—another year gone,’” said Jody Roun, COO of Old Dominion Cannabis, via email. “To see the conversation turn around this quickly through the budget process was surprising and exciting. For operators who have been planning around a moving target, it finally feels like there is a path.”
The compromise is not the same bill lawmakers originally passed. It reflects concessions to the governor, especially on timing, taxes, possession limits and enforcement. But it also preserves several priorities from legislators and advocates, including a larger retail cap, statewide access and a framework designed to give small businesses, farmers and microbusinesses a chance to participate.
Here are 10 key pieces of the framework Virginia is now poised to put into law:
1. Adult-use retail sales would begin July 1, 2027. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would begin accepting license applications on February 1, 2027, giving regulators time to write rules, establish testing standards and build the oversight structure before stores open.
2. Adults 21 and older would have a legal retail channel. Virginia already legalized adult possession and limited home cultivation, but this framework would finally allow consumers to purchase regulated cannabis from licensed retailers.
3. The adult possession limit would increase from one ounce to two ounces. That is less than the 2.5-ounce limit lawmakers originally sought, but higher than the current possession limit.
4. The state would allow up to 350 retail cannabis establishment licenses. Regulators would not be required to issue them all at once, but the cap is designed to create enough access to compete with the illicit market.
5. Localities would not be able to opt out of the market. That matters because local bans in other states have often left consumers with limited legal access and preserved demand for unregulated sellers.
6. Delivery services are expected to be allowed as part of the regulated market. Combined with the retail cap and no local opt-outs, delivery could become an important tool for statewide access, especially in rural areas.
7. The tax structure would start relatively low. Adult-use cannabis would carry a 6% state excise tax at launch, increasing to 8% beginning July 1, 2029. Local governments could add another 1% to 3.5%, in addition to existing retail sales taxes.
8. The Cannabis Control Authority would gain expanded oversight over intoxicating hemp products. The compromise is designed to close Virginia’s 25:1 hemp loophole and move intoxicating hemp regulation away from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and under the cannabis regulator.
9. The framework includes stronger child-safety and advertising rules. It would require child-resistant packaging, ban cartoon advertising and prohibit products shaped like animals, fruits, vehicles or humans.
10. The state would add stronger compliance and enforcement tools. Retailers could face escalating penalties for failing to check IDs, including possible license revocation for repeated underage sales. Stores would also have to be at least 1,000 feet from schools, hospitals, playgrounds and drug treatment facilities, while the CCA could maintain a public licensee registry, create a tip line and audit ownership and financial relationships.
“The cannabis license application cycle goes through peaks and valleys,” said Justin Singer, a partner at Feuerstein Kulick LLP and chair of the firm’s Regulatory Compliance and Licensing practice via phone interview. “We have been in an extended valley for sought-after licenses for some time, and as a result we have seen a tremendous amount of interest in this upcoming application process.”
Put together, the framework signals that Virginia is trying to do more than open stores. It is trying to correct the imbalance created in 2021: legal adults, legal possession, legal home cultivation—but no legal commercial channel for most consumers.
The challenge now is execution.
Cannabis regulators across the country have learned that legal markets do not automatically beat illicit ones. Taxes that are too high, licensing that is too slow, limited access, lack of capital and burdensome rules can all keep consumers in the unregulated market. Virginia’s relatively modest starting excise tax may help. So could the 350-store cap, if the state issues licenses in a way that creates real geographic coverage.
But questions remain. How quickly will cultivation and manufacturing licenses be processed? How much room will there be for independent operators? Will microbusinesses and impact applicants have meaningful access to banking and capital? Will existing medical operators have a first-mover advantage? And can the state build a market that is regulated enough to protect consumers without being so expensive and slow that it recreates the same illicit-market incentives legalization was supposed to solve?
For companies like Old Dominion Cannabis, the answer will determine whether Virginia becomes a real opportunity or simply another tightly controlled market dominated by the best-capitalized players.
Still, after five years of waiting, the significance of this moment is hard to ignore. Virginia is no longer debating whether adults should be allowed to possess cannabis. That question was answered in 2021. The question now is whether the Commonwealth can build a functioning legal industry around that decision.
The budget compromise does not end the work. It starts it.
For operators, the next several months will be about applications, compliance, capital and partnerships. For regulators, it will be about writing rules that can survive contact with the market. For consumers, it could mean finally having a legal way to purchase tested cannabis products in the first Southern state to legalize adult use.
Virginia took the symbolic step five years ago. Now it may finally be taking the commercial one.
RICHMOND, Va. — Jerrod Buford first picked up a paintbrush as a kid, never imagining that same creative outlet would carry him through his darkest days in prison.
Buford, who grew up in Williamsburg, was convicted and arrested as a young man and spent almost a decade behind bars. During that time, he struggled deeply.
“Turning to drugs and alcohol to kind of shadow over emotions,” Buford said. “Looking for acceptance, approval. Not just from my parents, but from friends, from, you name it. I mean, I tried to commit suicide, I don’t even know how many times,” Buford said.
WTVR
It was inside prison walls that art became more than a hobby.
“Throughout my prison time, I learned, the freedom that I desired, I’ve always had it. I got, I found it, in a box,” Buford said.
More than three years after his release, Buford continues to advocate for art as a tool for healing. He describes his work as a gift he feels called to share.
“I received a blessing from God that just allowed me to display what he’s given me,” Buford said.
For Buford, creating art is also a way of processing his past.
“That’s what art has done for me. It’s given me the ability to look at parts of my life, all parts of my life, and find the good and the negative, learn from the negative,” Buford said.
He shares his story and artwork with a wide audience through social media, including live sessions on TikTok, and holds art classes with new communities.
The Story Cafe
Buford said his mission is to help others find their own path toward healing — whatever form that takes.
“What I strive to do is guide this person to just create, man. Don’t care what people think about your creation, you just need to get it out,” Buford said. “Whether it’s with art, addressing your mental health, getting your life right — just do it.”
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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Lovingston, VA (7News) — Good Morning Washington interviews Amanda Beckwith of Virginia Distillery Company- one of the contributing distilleries to the Virginia Spirits Board’s 250th Celebration Trio Pack, a special, exclusive release created to commemorate America’s upcoming 250th anniversary. This limited-edition package features a curated collection of a rum, a gin, and a whiskey, all crafted from scratch by distillers in Virginia to celebrate the rich history and current state of distilling within the Commonwealth.
Beckwith elaborates on VA Distillery Company’s role in the project, noting her focus on Virginia-grown grain to make the bottle of unique whiskey that is included in the Trio Pack. It is also worth noting that the Trio Packs themselves were bottled and produced right here at Virginia Distilling Company!
American single malts are the newest official category of American whiskey, distilled from one grain and from a single distillery. Virginia Distillery Co specializes in this new category of whiskey and crafted their contribution to the Trio Pack with this very specialty. Given the limited remaining availability of the Trio Pack, its historical value and collectible nature, the message it loud and clear encouraging viewers to grab a pack before they are all gone!
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21+ Please drink responsibly, this content is sponsored by Virginia Distillery Company.
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