The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. (Virginian Review) — U.S. Rep. Ben Cline said Monday that the Alleghany Highlands stand at a “critical crossroads” as shifting federal and state policies reshape opportunities for rural industry, small business and broadband expansion across western Virginia.
Cline, R-6th, joined host Gene Mundy for the debut episode of The Value Proposition, a new community-focused podcast highlighting business and civic leaders in the region. The congressman—who served twice as long in Richmond as in Washington—told Mundy that his top concern is ensuring the Highlands “aren’t left behind” by decision-makers in either capital.
“It’s a rural region, but it’s also got an industrial base,” Cline said. “We want to make sure the Alleghany Highlands aren’t left behind—not only when it comes to Richmond policy but also Washington policy.”
Cline warned that proposals to repeal Virginia’s Right-to-Work law could have “a disastrous effect” on Covington’s economy, particularly at the WestRock paper mill, the area’s largest private employer.
Targeting Economic Incentives
Cline said his work on the House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees focuses on tax policy, spending, and regulation that directly affect small towns. Recent legislation, he said, expanded business expensing provisions and provided new tax relief for seniors—about $6,000 in untaxed Social Security income—as well as breaks on tips and overtime pay for lower-wage service workers.
“That’s real money—about $1,200 or $1,300 a year—for wait staff or others earning tips and overtime,” Cline said. “When people are stable, employers are more willing to expand and invest right here rather than in other states.”
He said rolling back what he called “destructive environmental regulations” from recent years remains a priority for House Republicans seeking to boost industrial growth.
Working With Richmond
Mundy noted that the election of Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger may usher in new policies affecting business costs and workplace rules. Cline said he intends to maintain a constructive relationship with the incoming Democratic administration, emphasizing that he and Spanberger once served together in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
“I’ll be using that relationship to make sure this area is not forgotten,” Cline said. “Working with Delegate Terry Austin and Senator Chris Head, we can remind the governor that communities like Covington need attention too.”
Cline said Virginia’s GO Virginia initiative—designed to match federal funds with state economic-development projects—remains an important tool but must be coupled with sound underlying policy. “You can’t just throw money at a company when you have bad policies,” he said.
Broadband and Remote Work
Asked about continued broadband expansion, Cline called high-speed internet “a lifeline for rural business, education and health care.” He praised local efforts that have already connected much of the Highlands but urged a technology-neutral approach to future funding, one that supports fiber, satellite, and emerging systems equally.
“We’re successfully bringing fiber to rural areas like this one,” he said. “But technology is advancing fast—Starlink and others are bringing broadband over satellite, reaching not just the end of the road but the top of the mountain.”
Cline criticized the Biden administration’s earlier focus on fiber-only deployments, saying the next administration should allow innovation to drive coverage. “That makes it more exciting for areas like ours,” he said.
Competing for Federal Grants
Mundy asked how small communities can compete with urban localities for resilience and infrastructure grants. Cline said the federal bureaucracy often favors stable or growing populations, making it difficult for slower-growth regions to qualify.
“We need to get that growth back,” he said, pointing to the idled WestRock production line. “If WestRock starts that line again, it sends a message to others that this area is ready to grow.”
Cline added that Congress must ensure grants actually produce results. “A lot of money has been frittered away on boondoggles,” he said. “We have to test them, make sure they work, and if not, bring that money back to Congress for better targeting.”
He said his office is building a database of grant and appropriations opportunities and encouraged local businesses and governments to contact him directly.
“Even if you don’t know whether it’s local, state or federal, call my office,” Cline said. “We can be a traffic cop for the bureaucracy.”
Tourism and Public Lands
Tourism, Cline added, is another vital pillar of the Highlands economy. With outdoor recreation generating roughly $360,000 in local revenue this year, he said federal public lands must remain open and well-maintained—even during budget standoffs.
“We’ve been 40 days in the wilderness with this shutdown,” he joked. “The parks have stayed open but with limited staff. We have to make sure visitors have a good experience so they come back.”
Cline cited the link between outdoor recreation and Main Street retail, noting that small businesses like outfitters and gear shops often thrive near national forests and trails. “You want that coexistence with the park,” he said, “to get that value add for the local economy.”
“A Jewel in the Crown”
Closing the interview, Cline described the Alleghany Highlands as “a jewel in the crown” of the Sixth District.
“I grew up in Rockbridge right next door,” he said. “It’s important to me personally that the Highlands thrive—that people here have great jobs and a great quality of life.”
Cline urged residents to keep in touch through his Roanoke or Staunton offices. “We’re open even when the government’s shut down,” he said. “And we stand ready to help.” You can contact his office here: https://cline.house.gov/contact/
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Podcast Transcript
Ben Cline 0:00
This region is facing a lot of unique challenges. It’s a rural region, but it’s also got an industrial base, and we want to make sure that Allegheny Highlands aren’t left behind, not only when it comes to Richmond policy, but also Washington policy. So I was in Richmond twice as long as I’ve been in Washington. So what’s happening in Richmond is at the forefront of my mind and concern, and I hope you’re going to have some of those Richmond policy makers on to talk about what changes are being discussed in Richmond. It’s a little disturbing to hear some of the policies being advocated because, for example, repealing our Right to Work Act would have a very, very disastrous effect on our on this local economy, on the
Gene Mundy 1:01
Good afternoon, everybody. I’m Gene Mundy. I’m the host of the value proposition where we bring together business leaders, civic leaders and citizens here from our community, the Allegheny Highlands. Today we’re joined by Congressman Ben Klein of the sixth district, representing our hometown. Ben, nice to have you with us. Gene, good to be with you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. So as we were talking, this is kind of like our first podcast here and and it’s exciting little getting used to There you go. You’re, you’re our flagship, oh man, no pressure, flagship episode. So yeah, no pressure at all. Right, we’re gonna start at the top and kind of work
Ben Cline 1:39
our way. It’s only up from here?
Gene Mundy 1:42
Well, guess it depends on whose chair you’re in, right? So, you know, in getting ready for this we, you know, we put together a few questions and something, you know, some, some things that we think impact our community. And we’d like to hear from your perspective as a congressman, and, you know, watching, watching the community here grow and develop and how federal resources could be leveraged and to assist in our own economic development. So I got a few questions. Yeah, all right. First question is, and I’m going to read it so we can stay on track from from from your position, what current house committees or initiatives you’re involved with are the most relevant to economic growth or role vitalization, revitalization for our community? Great question.
Ben Cline 2:35
You know, to start this region is facing a lot of unique challenges. It’s a rural region, but it’s also got an industrial base, and we want to make sure that Allegheny Highlands aren’t left behind, not only when it comes to Richmond policy, but also Washington policy. So I was in Richmond twice as long as I’ve been in Washington. So what’s happening in Richmond is at the forefront of my mind and concern, and I hope you’re going to have some of those Richmond policy makers on to talk about what changes are being discussed in Richmond. It’s a little disturbing to hear some of the policies being advocated because, for example, repealing our Right to Work Act would have a very, very disastrous effect on our on this local economy, on the potential for the plant, this Murph, it plant to continue to succeed and grow. And we want to make sure that industry views Covington and the Allegheny Highlands as a place they want to come. So giving tax incentives and other kinds of opportunities for this area to recruit businesses to come is going to be real important. So those incentives at the state level are important, but at the federal level, we can do the same thing. So tax incentives are important for businesses to locate, making sure, however, that a lot of the more destructive policies for economic growth are undone from the last administration is equally important so some of the environmental regulations that have been put on during the Biden administration, previous administrations, we are in the process of undoing we still have, even with the Trump administration, rules that are forthcoming out of the Energy Department and the EPA that are harmful to industrial growth and development. So blocking those proposed rules is a step that the House can do, and has done on several occasions. So the house as a whole has voted, and I voted, to stop these regulations from going forward. But then I. At the same time, our individual committees are also advancing legislation, starting with the big, beautiful bill we got done this summer that is going to not only help businesses with expensing and things like that that they can do on their taxes, to help save money and reinvest in their communities and in their businesses, because the small business community is vital to Covington and to the Allegheny Highlands, but also for families, because we are dealing with a population that is older and needs special assistance that way. So providing an additional tax break for seniors in the big, beautiful bill amount to about $6,000 worth of Social Security income. So no, when the President advocated for no tax on Social Security, we got that ball rolling. Weren’t able to bite the whole bite in the first first bill, but we’re going to continue to work on that, and then other ways that we’re helping can discuss down the line. But Appropriations is a committee I’m on to answer your question that does involve a lot of direct spending policy, and then Ways and Means, which is the Tax Committee deals with tax policy, environment environmental regulations will go through the Energy and Commerce Committee and and then there are another number of other interior dealing with parks and forest areas, agriculture dealing with farmers. So there are a number of committees in Congress that impact the Allegheny highlands that are working on policies that help rural America.
Gene Mundy 6:47
Great, you mentioned, you know, the state, state leaders and, you know, just kind of give you an idea. We’ve, you know, we hope to bring delegate Terry Austin in. We’ve reached out to him and Senator Chris head, good, you know, so we kindly, you know, as we talked about starting at the federal level and working our way down, we hope that, we hope we can get them in in the next couple weeks and kind of build on the conversation, particularly not to get turn this into a political conversation. But you know, certainly you know, recent elections and that’s going to have some repercussions that I think we all as small business folks need to be thinking about, how does that affect my business, or, how does that affect our community of businesses in Covington and certainly the environmental piece is a real big question of, how Does that impact Smurfit in a lot of folks jobs? Yeah, absolutely so. So, you know, when we think about Covington and the role of, you know, small communities like Covington and Allegheny Highlands, how does that fit into the broader, you know, maybe Virginia, broader economic strategy, you know, we see areas like Richmond, Fairfax, Norfolk, you know, get a lot of attention. They have a lot of bigger urban areas get typically end up with more funding, you know, yeah, how do we, how do we leverage our position here to attract those federal investments.
Ben Cline 8:23
Well, it involves making sure that the administration focuses on areas like ours, the rural parts of all of the states, so the rural areas of Virginia, the rural areas of Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina. So all the different states, regardless of where you are, this administration, more than the previous one, focused on, how do we get those additional resources to areas that are harder hit by a lot of these, the new economic changes that are happening. There are a lot of data centers up in Northern Virginia. We don’t want data centers here, but we want jobs here. So how do we get more jobs here, supporting small businesses and helping families who may be living paycheck to paycheck make it through. So when you’ve got a main street community like this one. It’s got restaurants, got minimum wage jobs. So when you look at the bill we passed this summer that removes taxes on tips, removes taxes on overtime, up to a certain level, you’re dealing with those who are earning minimum wages, who are in the service economy, and hopefully you’re going to see a savings of around $1,200 $1,300 a year, not only for wait staff or service staff, who are earning tips, but also overtime pay. Amount. Accounting to around $1,300 a year. That is going to be you’re going to see tax reductions for that as well. So making sure that people are stable when they’re here in this community is going to help bring employers to the community, help small businesses expand and use the expensing deduction that we added to the bill so that they can reinvest in equipment. Big employers like Smurfit Westrock are going to be able to reinvest in equipment and in employees and grow here rather than invest in plants in other states.
Gene Mundy 10:36
Yeah, and that’s that’s a bit of a concern, right? When you think about the new regulations potentially that we may expect from a change of you know, the administration changing in Richmond, you elect with span a burger spanberger being elected when companies like Wes rock look at increased cost to upgrade environmental standards. Right to Work, you start thinking, Okay, do they make that investment? Or does that business? Look at other areas where they may have a more what’s the right word? I’m looking for favorable environment like South Carolina, Tennessee. What have
Ben Cline 11:29
you right? Yeah, I mean, this is not their only plan, right? And so they’ve got a decision to make when they are when the economy is growing, when they have opportunities to expand. They’re looking at Covington, they’re looking at South Carolina, or wherever else they’ve got plants, and saying, Where are we going to get the most bang for our buck? And they’ll and we’ve got economic development in the state go Virginia, which is an entity that’s set up to try and target expansion opportunities and funnel limited state resources and match federal resources to get those investments made here. And that’s a good thing to have, but we’ve got to have the pot. I mean, at the end of the day, you can’t just throw money at a company when you have bad underlying policies, and that’s why we’ve got to, you know, I have a working relationship with Governor elect spanberger. We were both in the problem solvers caucus together, the bipartisan caucus made up of half Republican and half Democrat. And there are a lot of problems that we haven’t been able to solve in rich in Washington. But doesn’t mean we don’t sit down and try and behind the scenes. There’s a lot of conversations going on, and so I have that working relationship. I will be using that to talk to her and her people, to try and make sure that this area is not forgotten. She doesn’t come from this area, but she has visited here, so I’m hopeful that we can remind her, working with Terry and and working with Chris head, we’ll be able to as a team, get those get that attention and get those resources sent out here.
Gene Mundy 13:11
One of the one of the successes we kindly see here locally is the expansion of broadband. And when we start thinking about remote, remote workforce, lower cost of living, attracting folks to come in to our community that maybe don’t want to live in Fairfax, or they don’t want to live in Norfolk, et cetera. So, you know, one of the questions we have is, you know, it remains a lifeline for rural business, education and health care, what federal programs or funding streams should our local government and private providers be looking for to reach full coverage? Because we’re not there yet, but we’re getting there right,
Ben Cline 13:50
and a lot of those incentives are being pursued privately by the companies, and so working with those companies to try and target this area, and come to this area, let them know the market is here and want to invest. And that’s another thing where you know you if you give families and individuals more financial security, they’re going to have those resources to participate in the marketplace for broadband and start to buy those services. Businesses can take advantage of them, and that’s going to bring those employers into the area, but they also look to the governments, whether it’s state or federal or local, for incentives to come here. And so, you know, there have been some state incentives for broadband, laying fiber federally, there have been bills and funding streams that have made fiber more available in rural areas, and we’re at a point now where not only are we successfully bringing fiber to rural areas like this one, but technology is advancing at such a rate where you’ve got. Are folks like Starlink with broadband over satellite that are kind of bypassing the old fiber routes and providing faster, more accessible to the not just the end of the road, but beyond the top of the mountain, you can get internet access now, high speed internet access, and so making sure that those funding streams are available to the next generation of technology, and not just limited to the existing providers of fiber, that’s something we’ve got to do as
Gene Mundy 15:39
Well. That’s that’s an interesting I had not thought about broadband over satellite. Certainly here we’re very familiar with Lumas, which is now, I guess, T, T Mobile. So, you know, as a guy who’s a remote worker, you know, I work a lot with companies in the GovCon space out of Northern Virginia. You know, I can live here versus, you know, being in the up near the beltway. I’ve got great connectivity. I can certainly do everything I can hear that I could do there in, you know, when it comes to meetings or events, it’s, um, it’s, you know, it’s not that long to get there to attend, you know, in person events. So there’s a lot of folks like me here that I think are enjoying the small town community and, you know, still engaged in dealing with, you know, companies outside this area.
Ben Cline 16:37
Yeah, you’ve got to make sure that when you’re dealing with the federal funding streams that they’re approaching it in a technology neutral way. The last Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, under the Biden administration, was very focused on fiber and laying fiber, and quite frankly, they were ignoring a large segment of what was developing in the industry, and could have helped a lot more people during that time. And I think the Trump administration is open to those new technologies and is pursuing a technology neutral approach, where everybody’s in everybody’s plan, and that just makes it more exciting for areas like ours, where you not only are going to get the last mile delivered, but you’re going to get the entire footprint of the region delivered with broadband. Great.
Gene Mundy 17:30
So we talked about this a little earlier, resilience infrastructure grants. How do we how do we work with the federal government to be more attractive to receiving those grants, versus, again, a larger urban area.
Ben Cline 17:49
Well, when the bureaucracy looks at localities for grants, they’re looking at a variety of different standards that they want to meet and and a checklist that they have to run. And so you want stability in a region, you want to make sure that the population is stable, and the Allegheny Highlands is stable, but it’s not growing, and we need to get that growth back. How do you bring dollars in that are going to help the economy grow? So that’s where the state policies are going to come into play. And if West Rock is hiring and starts up that that line that has been shut down for a year now, I think then that will send a message to others that are going to come in and create jobs. I can help with the grants that are existing. But we’re in a time of flux right now in the federal government, where the administration wants to test those grants that are in existence to make sure they are working and not just being frittered away and not creating jobs and not and this last administration and administrations before It actually have just spent taxpayer dollars on grants that really did nothing to and to grow the economy. Were really just boondoggles, and you can see some of the worst examples are in foreign aid, but a lot of them are domestic as well. What we have to do is to test them, put them to the test, make sure they work, make sure they create jobs on the whole when you get a good report back, then you put more money into them. If they don’t, then that money needs to come back to Congress. Congress needs to take control of its spending, and we need to look in our districts and pick those. Locations where that money could do the most good I know for serving as representative for the sixth district for the last eight years, seven years that this area does not keep up with economic growth rates of the rest of the district. So you go up to Winchester, is growing leaps and bounds, and people are moving out from Northern Virginia. You go down to Roanoke, and they’ve got the biotech industry growing. But here we are not growing as fast. And so I know if I were given access to federal funds that were no longer being administered by bureaucracy departments through grants that I could focus on this area better through direct appropriations. We’re not at that point yet, because we’re still in the phase where the administration saying this grant works, this grant doesn’t, but hopefully in the next few years, you’re going to be able to be able to see more from my office and from Congress in investing targeted dollars directly into areas like this one to help incentivize growth.
Gene Mundy 21:10
So that’s that’s a great, great point, and I think a great opportunity for us as as a community. So how do we how would we work with you? Yeah, obviously we’re not at the point, but you know, kind of give me an idea of what can we do as a community to help
Ben Cline 21:30
you. Well, you guys have a great EDA here, an Economic Development Association, Chamber of Commerce here, that’s very active and very involved in the community that hears things before I do. I get here as often as I can. I live down in Botetourt, so it’s an easy trip and and so I can see for myself some areas that might be ripe for growth, but I’m not here every day, and so I need to be in close contact with those eight, those entities that are here locally, and it doesn’t even have to be your local chamber, if it’s a local business, and they’re thinking about expanding or growing, you know if, if coochies wants another location, if, you know if there’s another business that is looking at putting in next to the truck stop or something like that, that they can contact my office and we can search through a database that we are Building of grant opportunities and also appropriations opportunities so they don’t even have to know where to look. They can just call us and we can kind of be a a what I like to say is a traffic cop for the bureaucracy, where, even if you don’t know if it’s a local, state or federal question, call my office. Closest one for from here is probably Roanoke office, but I got one in Staunton too, and and so then we can direct you to the entity or the agency, if it’s not us, that’s going to best be helpful.
Gene Mundy 23:17
I think there’s a lot of good ideas growing down those ideas to what is, what’s actionable. And I think there’s some great folks in town here, like you mentioned economic development and the Chamber of Commerce. You know, we’ve got a super city manager here, yeah, Alan Dressler, that certainly, you know, sees those type of opportunities. And, you know, working together, we’d like to, you know, try to help him, help whoever use this platform to try to promote those, those new ideas and concepts. So, sir, I know you’re you got a limited amount of time. You got another event going on today? Got one more question. Yeah, we’ll take another one. Here’s one. Tourism and outdoor recreation have become major economic drivers in Allegheny Highlands. I don’t know if you over the last month or so, we just had announcement Chamber of Commerce did this year about 360,000 I think, and it’s awesome in economic development related to tourism. So the question is, what role do federal tourism public lands or transportation policies play in supporting local economies like ours?
Ben Cline 24:35
Well, federal public lands are critical to the economy here throughout the sixth district, and so we want to make sure, first and foremost, those stay open. So not to date the podcast, but we’re in the middle of a federal government shutdown, and it’s been frustrating. For the last 40 days. We’ve been as a joke 40 days in the wilderness, and now it. Looks like there’s a glimmer of hope out of the Senate and and hopefully it’ll bear out with this podcast, when people watch it, that we’ll have reopened. And the parks have been open, but they’ve been limited staffed, and so we want to make sure that that gets back, so that we can be welcoming to people from all over and who want to come here and who want to partake of whether it’s hiking or fishing or hunting or biking or whatever opportunities they have to enjoy the beauty during the peak leaf season that they have had, and now that it’s getting colder still, a lot of opportunities. Yeah, absolutely. Woods. Time to get in the woods, but so first and foremost making sure that we provide resources to our park service, to the parks department, and that that money is available to the States and to the localities, not only for tourism, but also for maintenance, to make sure that they have a good experience when they’re in the parks. But then that also extends over into the Main Street Community. So you get clothing stores and walk about Outfitters. Tina Miller, who runs that out of Lexington rock bridge county isn’t here, but it’s, you know, she has a great idea for outdoor clothing and and stuff that you can use while you’re hiking. And those kind of stores thrive in rural communities near parks, near recreation, like this, and so making sure that money is available for folks to start up small businesses. If folks want to try their hand at running a business that sells those kinds of things, they’d probably be pretty popular. And you want that coexistence with the park to make sure you get that value add for the local economy.
Gene Mundy 27:07
Well, sir, thank you. I want to say thank you for joining us on our on our flagship episode. It’s been my pleasure to
Ben Cline 27:13
have you here. Hope I didn’t put people to sleep, but I would
Gene Mundy 27:17
just offer you the final word if you have anything you’d like to share with your constituents?
Ben Cline 27:22
Well, it’s an honor to represent the sixth district. Allegheny highlands are a jewel in the crown of the district and a special, special place. I grew up in rock bridge right next door, so playing sports against local high schools at running track against local high schools is something I treasure and so I love coming back here, and it’s important to me, personally to make sure that Allegheny Highlands thrive and economically, and that folks are living here, have great jobs, have a great quality of Life. And so whatever I can do to help, please keep in touch with my office. Reach out to my Roanoke office. We’re open even when the government shut down. We’re still open, and we stand ready to help. And I’ll continue to be back on a regular basis and checking in and hopefully watching great things happen.
Gene Mundy 28:19
Thank you for watching the value proposition. We’re looking forward to seeing you the next time you.
