The Virginia House Committee on Communications, Technology and Innovation held its first 2026 session meeting with no legislation voted on, instead receiving informational presentations from the Secretary of Administration Tracy Deshazer, the Department of Housing and Community Development and Office of Broadband on Virginia's broadband deployment programs, and the Virginia IT Agency's Chief Information Officer Bob Osmond on statewide technology modernization.
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Alfonso H. Lopez pressed Dr. Tamara Holmes on how Virginia could claim it would be the first state to achieve full broadband coverage when the Trump administration had not yet defined allowable uses for the $800 million in non-deployment BEAD funds still held at Treasury. Lopez stated: 'Seeing as how there is no actual definition yet and NTIA has not actually given us allowable uses for non deployment funds, how are we making the intellectual leap that we're going to get there quickly and before everybody else?' Holmes responded that the $545 million for deployment of 85,000 locations had been released and that the $800 million was a separate non-deployment category for which guidance was expected by March 11, while acknowledging: 'You are correct. We do not know what is eligible through that program.'
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“We sometimes need to be reminded that we don't pass ideas, we pass law. And so we take that very seriously. And the fact that folks are going to have to follow what it is that we pass and we shape as the law here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, we want to make sure that we get as close as we can to getting it right.”
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Sign in to subscribeGood morning, everyone. We welcome you to the first 2026 meeting of the Communications Technology and Innovation Committee. This time, we'll ask that the clerk call the. Sa. All right, members Caster, show your attendance on the electronic voting machine. We have two more coming in. All right, we have a quorum. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. As this is the committee's first meeting of the 2026 session, I wanted to take a few minutes to make announcements and for members of the committee to introduce themselves. I'm Delegate Cliff Hayes representing the 91st House District, which includes the cities of Chesapeake and Portsmouth. I consider it a privilege to serve as the chairman of this important committee, and I'm certainly honored to serve in the footsteps of many great leaders who have led this committee over the years. I recall once coming and getting the, I guess, summary and the backstory on the committee from. I used to call him number one delegate Ken Plum, who had served quite a time here in the General Assembly. He reminded me of the great work of this committee and some of the things that he remembers in the way of…
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