U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith met with local business leaders at the West Piedmont Higher Education Center (formerly the New College Institute) on July 9, discussing issues ranging from health care and data centers to artificial intelligence and education during a roundtable luncheon.
Del. Eric Phillips, R-Martinsville, also attended the event.
One of the first topics was access to health care, particularly maternity services, as participants described Martinsville and the surrounding area as a maternity care desert.
“I think that we need to figure out some solution. I don’t have it. I’ll look through my friends in the health care community to help me figure it out. How do we create a new program without creating new taxes” Griffith, R-Salem, asked.
“There’s a huge group of folks out there who have to travel to get maternity care. So maternity care is a great question. I don’t have an answer for you.”
Griffith said he supports expanding telemedicine as one way to improve access to care.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to recognize that transportation savings and telemedicine save money. We need creativity,” he said.
The discussion also turned to data centers and their potential impact on the region.
Griffith said he supports requiring data center developers to pay for the electrical infrastructure needed to serve their facilities rather than shifting those costs to residential customers.
“The concept that the data centers pay for their own electric upgrades absolutely makes sense,” he said. “It was absolutely ridiculous to not have the data center pay. They need to pay for the upgrades. It doesn’t need to be the average householder.”
He also said concerns about water use deserve careful consideration.
“When you talk about data centers, it is legitimate for constituents and for people who live near a facility like that to say, ‘Wait a minute. If we’re having to ration water, how are we going to afford to use the water in data centers?’ These are legitimate questions that have to be answered,” Griffith said. “We’ve got to be cautious, and we can’t be just reckless and say we’ve got to have them everywhere.”
Griffith also discussed the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI), saying it is likely to eliminate some jobs while creating others.
“AI is going to bring about all kinds of major changes. There will be a period of time when there are some job losses, but just like after previous technological revolutions, new jobs are created because of the new technologies,” he said.
He said artificial intelligence also has the potential to accelerate advances in medicine.
“It’s medicine, it’s economy, and we want to stay the number one economic nation as long as we can,” Griffith said.
Addressing energy needs, Griffith said the country has sufficient energy resources if policymakers are willing to develop them.
“We have more energy than we know what to do with. The question is, are we willing to use it? The technology exists,” he said.
Griffith also shared his views on federal involvement in education, saying he supports continued funding for key programs while reducing federal regulations.
“I think the federal government needs to continue to support education programs. I do think it’s gotten a little wild on regulation,” he said.
“I agree with rearranging the Department of Education, but I think the money needs to be there. Title I schools, disabled children, having that speech therapy — the federal government needs to help with that,” Griffith said. “I think the Department of Education could be reworked. You’ve got to keep the money there because my district and counties don’t have enough money to do all the programs the federal government is requiring.”
