A round of tomatoes is in order for Texas’ acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who on Tuesday announced the state would be removing women- and minority-owned businesses from its Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program, and rebranding it to “Veteran Heroes United in Business” (VetHUB) instead. Why? He wants to comply with Trump’s—and Texas’ GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s—anti-DEI executive orders.
Typically, Texan businesses become HUB-certified to increase their exposure, and to get certified, they have to be owned by someone “economically disadvantaged.” Under the original guidelines, in place since 1999, this included being Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific, Native, a woman, or a veteran with at least 20% service-connected disability. But on Wednesday afternoon, in an email that was viewed by Jezebel, Hancock sent HUB businesses new emergency rules. “Businesses that were certified in the past based on their owners’ race, ethnicity, or gender will no longer qualify,” the email read, and the program “will serve small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.” According to an internal catalogue also shared with Jezebel, there are zero women who will qualify as service-disabled veterans under the new rules.
“It’s creating noise and uncertainty in an economic landscape that doesn’t really need any more of that,” Julie Hartman, co-founder and CEO of B2G Victory, a HUB business—and one that helps other small businesses obtain HUB certification—told Jezebel of the changes. “It’s hard enough right now to be a business…now we’re adding this onto it.”
But Hancock has long had HUB and DEI in his sights. He originally froze the program in October, only to fully overhaul it this week. “These emergency rules ensure Texas’ state contracting is free from gender or race discrimination and keep the program centered on those who earned this support through their service,” he announced in a press release on Tuesday. Shortly after freezing the program, he then tweeted, “NO to DEI and YES to merit in Texas!” and “Businesses deserve a level playing field where government contracts are earned by performance and best value – not race or sex quotas.”
Except… no such quotas exist. HUB was created and signed into law nearly three decades ago by then-Governor George Bush to ensure minorities and women were included as government contractors. At the time, state Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas)—who helped co-author the bill behind the program—confirmed that minority and female small business owners were not a “quota” focal point. “The program is not a quota program,” he told KFOX14 on Thursday. “[Bush] was not a governor that would have accepted a quota program.”
But Hancock—another MAGA demon to add to our cursed index—has never been one to make women’s lives better. He became acting comptroller in June, stepping away from his state Senator seat, where he helped draft the law behind Texas’ near-total abortion ban, sponsored or co-authored a number of other anti-abortion policies, and was even voted the worst legislator by Texas Monthly in 2017. It’s only natural he’d find a way to make accounting evil.
