<\/p>\n
The Harris County seal on the first floor of the county administration building.<\/p>\n
Yi-Chin Lee\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey is seeking to suspend a program designed to distribute government contracts to businesses owned by minorities and women<\/a> after a judge struck down a similar program run by the city of Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n Commissioners will consider Ramsey\u2019s proposal Thursday, along with several other items related to the beleaguered program, which also faces a lawsuit brought by the same company that won the ruling against the city<\/a>. Coupled with Texas\u2019 recent move to dismantle a related statewide initiative, Harris County\u2019s affirmative action program is facing an uncertain future.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ramsey, the lone Republican on Commissioners Court, said in a statement that his issue with the county program is that it was an inefficient program that fails to support the people it was designed to benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cCommissioner Ramsey has raised concerns previously that Harris County\u2019s \u2026 program is overly complicated, expensive to administer and falls short of helping the small businesses it was intended to serve,\u201d said Precinct 3 spokesperson Amery Reid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reid said Ramsey will ask the other court members to consider suspending the program while the county \u201cdevelops a simpler and legally sound approach that better supports small businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE: Houston politicians react to minority business program being ruled unconstitutional by federal court<\/a><\/p>\n County Attorney Abbie Kamin indicated after the ruling against the city program, however, that she believes \u201cthere is a lawful and durable path forward that preserves meaningful opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses while satisfying constitutional requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Commissioner Rodney Ellis championed the county\u2019s affirmative action program and created the Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity to oversee it, among other responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n He pledged to continue fighting for the program, calling actions against it \u201ca cynical political maneuver designed to divide our community and deny opportunities to people across Harris County.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of undercutting small businesses and their workforce during an ongoing affordability crisis,\u201d he said in a statement, \u201cwe should be expanding opportunities so that everyone in our community can thrive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ellis also added an item to Thursday’s agenda to discuss the lawsuit against the county in a closed-door executive session.\u00a0<\/p>\n College admissions ruling sends ripples<\/p>\n Demonstrators react to the affirmative action opinion outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful, curtailing affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, a policy that has long been a pillar of higher education. (Kenny Holston\/The New York Times)<\/p>\n KENNY HOLSTON\/NYT<\/p>\n Harris County’s program and those like it mandate that larger firms and those owned by white men subcontract a portion of the business they receive to companies owned by minorities and women.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Former county attorney Jonathan Fombonne previously said the programs relied on an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that allowed governments to take steps to remedy past harms, such as discriminatory business practices that resulted in companies owned by women and minorities receiving few government contracts.<\/p>\n But that legal foundation was undercut by the Supreme Court\u2019s 2023 decision neutering affirmative action in college admissions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to that ruling, local governments needed only to prove that a disparity existed, typically by conducting a study examining the share of contracts that go to businesses owned by white men compared to those owned by women and minorities. A study published by Harris County in 2020 found firms owned by white men received more than 90% of the money the county paid businesses over a three-year period.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n