according to the comptroller\u2019s office.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe program does not guarantee contracts,\u201d said Alphonso David, one of the lawyers challenging the comptroller\u2019s restructuring. \u201cWhat it does is provide the opportunity to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
David said state agencies were expected to make good-faith efforts to include HUB-certified firms in contracting, and some larger state contracts offered subcontracting opportunities that could help smaller businesses enter public procurement. Those mechanisms created openings for minority- and women-owned firms to compete for work they might otherwise struggle to reach.<\/p>\n
Under the restructuring, he said, many of those participation opportunities were largely limited to businesses that still qualified under the veteran-focused rules.<\/p>\n
Impact on Contracts, Income and Jobs<\/p>\n
For Rub\u00e9n Mercado Jr., founder of Ipsum General Contractors, a Houston-based civil construction and infrastructure company, the changes quickly translated into losses.<\/p>\n
He said he lost a bid worth nearly $1 million and a multiyear $2 million contract with UT MD Anderson cancer treatment and research center. About 85% of his business had been tied to opportunities linked to the HUB program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program didn\u2019t give me anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt opened the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the impact was not only financial but disruptive to a business built around growth.<\/p>\n
J.R. Gonz\u00e1lez, vice president of Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce, a statewide network representing Hispanic-owned businesses, said other businesses faced similar risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could lose 50% or 60% of your income overnight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said those losses could extend to employees, suppliers and communities.<\/p>\n
\u2018A Foot in the Door\u2019<\/p>\n
Kenneth Nichols, the son of Haitian immigrants and owner of Nichols Leadership LLC, an Austin-based leadership and organizational development consulting firm, said he viewed the program as a way to enter spaces where small businesses, particularly those historically excluded, are not always invited.<\/p>\n
Although he never secured a state contract, he said the certification was still worth the time and effort, representing investment and potential opportunity despite the lack of guaranteed results.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a small business owner, you spend hours getting certified, and you still may never get a contract,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His daughter, Natalie Nichols, owner of Hi-Rez Solutions, a Houston-based photography and creative services business, saw the program through another lens.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PHOTO-3-210x315.png\")
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\u201cWhen opportunities become uncertain, people pull back.\u201d Dr. Kenneth Nichols speaks at a leadership session in Austin in Jan. 2026.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a business owner who launched her company more recently, she said the program offered not only potential access to contracts, but visibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program puts you in front of organizations you might not reach on your own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the value of the program was in building relationships that could lead to future work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen those opportunities disappear, you don\u2019t just lose potential work. You lose connections,\u201d Natalie Nichols said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PHOTO-21-210x315.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Natalie Nichols provides photography and creative services at a wedding event in Houston in June 2025.<\/p>\n
Uncertainty for businesses outside the lawsuit<\/p>\n
While the preliminary injunction temporarily restored the original HUB rules for the six plaintiffs, uncertainty remained for many others.<\/p>\n
The Houston chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors urged its 165 members to reapply for certification.<\/p>\n
For companies outside the lawsuit, Kenneth Nichols said questions remained.<\/p>\n
For some owners, the uncertainty extends beyond certification status. It reaches decisions about hiring, investing in equipment or continuing to pursue projects that can take months to develop.<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez said that kind of instability can be especially difficult for small businesses operating with limited profit margins and long planning cycles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program exists because documented discrimination existed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a way to open the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
For owners who built growth around that pathway, he said, progress made over time can become harder to sustain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen opportunities become uncertain, people pull back,\u201d Kenneth Nichols said. \u201cThey delay investment. They stop pursuing growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natalie Nichols said the risk is not always immediate or obvious.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes what disappears first is not the contract,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the connection that might have led to one.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Williams, the question was whether minority-owned businesses would continue to have a fair path into public contracting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for special treatment,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking for the opportunity to compete on equal footing, like any other business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Erika Gonzalez Photography By Erika Gonzalez Reporting Texas \u00a0 Natalie Nichols, right, owner of Hi-Rez Solutions, reviews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-273061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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