Senator from Chittenden informed the Senate that the executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board reported the federal administration has canceled the Digital Equity grant program, a move the senator said would remove roughly $5.3 million in immediate funding and another $5 million in subsequent years.

The senator said the administration's rationale was that grants under the Digital Equity Act were "unconstitutional" because they were created and administered using impermissible racial preferences. The senator said the canceled funding targeted aging and low-income Vermonters, veterans, people with disabilities, those with language barriers, and racial and ethnic minorities, and that it would have supported fiber-optic infrastructure and programs to expand participation in education, telehealth, remote work, and civic engagement.

The senator asked that the remarks be journalized; the Senate approved that request by voice vote. Fellow senators on the floor (including the senator from Addison) noted this was a matter of concern for prior state broadband planning and funding efforts and said they wanted the comments recorded in the Senate journal.

The announcement on the chamber floor attributed the funding change to the federal administration's decision; no additional documentation or a federal announcement was offered on the floor during the session. The senator framed the change as a threat to digital-equity components of Vermont's broadband investments and called it an erosion of principles that the senator said the state had sought to protect.