{"id":80198,"date":"2025-12-08T11:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/80198\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:36:11","slug":"women-minority-small-business-owners-confused-worried-after-texas-kicks-them-off-hub-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/80198\/","title":{"rendered":"Women, minority small business owners confused, worried after Texas kicks them off HUB program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy <\/a> , and give us feedback <\/a> . <\/p>\n

Julie Irvin Hartman started her Tuesday with welcome, but confusing news. <\/p>\n

The application she had submitted weeks ago to renew her business\u2019s certification as a Historically Underutilized Business had been approved, despite acting state Comptroller Kelly Hancock\u2019s late October announcement that he was freezing the program intended to give businesses owned by women, minorities and disabled veterans a boost when seeking state government contracts. <\/p>\n

But hours later, the comptroller\u2019s office emailed Hartman again, notifying her and more than 15,000 other small businesses \u2014 nearly 97% of the certified HUB businesses in Texas \u2014 that they were being removed from the HUB program entirely. <\/p>\n

Then her phone notifications exploded. <\/p>\n

The owner of Tomball-based B2G Victory, Hartman has built her business around advising other small businesses about how to navigate the world of government contracting, making her the first call for many of her confused clients who also received the comptroller\u2019s email. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the expert in this space and I\u2019m charging expert fees, and telling people, \u2018I don\u2019t know,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cSo what value am I providing? It\u2019s tough right now \u2026 I\u2019ve had a lot of sleepless nights.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hartman and thousands of other HUB-certified businesses have faced uncertainty since Hancock first announced the freeze of the decades-old program, arguing that it may run afoul of both the state and U.S. constitutions, without pointing to any specific violation. No state or federal judge has ruled the program unconstitutional. <\/p>\n

The program launched in the 1990s and is administered by the Comptroller\u2019s office, which certifies HUB businesses that can show a majority of their ownership is \u201ceconomically disadvantaged\u201d people \u2014 including women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Native Americans and service-disabled veterans.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan state law that created the program doesn\u2019t mandate that HUB-certified businesses are granted state contracts, but sets goals that state agencies are encouraged to meet.<\/p>\n

Hancock said it was necessary to freeze and review the program to ensure it complies with Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s<\/a> January executive order banning programs that promote \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion\u201d from state agencies. Then the Comptroller\u2019s office announced Tuesday that the HUB program will now only be available to small businesses controlled by veterans with a 20% percent or higher service-connected disability.<\/p>\n

That decision excludes the vast majority of the previously HUB-certified businesses while maintaining the status quo for 485 disabled veteran-owned businesses, according to a May comptroller\u2019s report. All 485 are owned by men, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation\u2019s veterans have always stepped up for us,\u201d Hancock wrote in a statement Tuesday. \u201cVetHUB is Texas\u2019 way of stepping up for them \u2014 cutting red tape, restoring constitutional integrity and opening doors for the men and women who wore our nation\u2019s uniform. These emergency rules ensure Texas\u2019 state contracting is free from gender or race discrimination and keep the program centered on those who earned this support through their service.\u201d<\/p>\n

A frequently asked questions page on the Comptroller\u2019s website assured HUB businesses with current government contracts that those agreements would be honored for the duration of the contract. <\/p>\n

Garry Olson, owner of Austin-based IT solutions company Semper Feye Solutions and a service-disabled veteran, had spent weeks fretting over the possibility of losing his ongoing state contracts if the HUB freeze did not end before his certification expires in February. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard that there were issues with the program before, but I\u2019ve never had any problems with it,\u201d Olson said. \u201cI was thankful to be a part of it, and I\u2019m thankful to still be a part of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Efforts to kill HUB program failed in Legislature<\/p>\n

State Sen. Royce West<\/a>, a Dallas Democrat who co-authored the 1999 bill that created the HUB program, said it\u2019s a necessary tool to correct historical discrimination in government contracting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack businesses, Hispanic businesses, women-owned businesses, all the other categories in the HUB statute were not able to have meaningful participation for procurement opportunities with the state,\u201d West said. \u201cRecognizing quotas would be illegal, we put together a good faith program to look at whether or not agencies are making good faith efforts to bring in those categories that have been historically discriminated against.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, speaks at a press conference on the front steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 2025. Lucy Lu for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

Several Republican bills aimed at killing the HUB program entirely were filed earlier this year in the Legislature. They all died without making progress in either chamber.<\/p>\n

West disputed Hancock\u2019s ability to alter the HUB program in such a significant way without the approval of the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we allow an officer not associated with the legislative body that passed the law signed by the governor to do this to this program, what else will they attempt to do that is outside the scope of their statutory authority?\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

Companies scrambling to adjust without HUB<\/p>\n

Kate Kossack\u2019s staffing agency, Cedar Park-based HireOps Staffing, was HUB-certified as a woman-owned business and is a subcontractor on a state contract in the health care field. She credited the HUB program with her success winning government contracts soon after starting her business in 2016 and said she believes the Comptroller\u2019s decision will cause her business to lose money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn staffing, it\u2019s hard to compete with bigger firms \u2026 Not having restrictions from the state will open the door to let (larger companies) do absolutely whatever they want,\u201d Kossack said. \u201cWe could just be left in the dust.\u201d <\/p>\n

Helen Callier, who owns Kingwood-based BradLink LLC, a HUB-certified architectural design and project management firm, said she knows she will still be able to find work despite losing her HUB status, but her company will have to make changes. Many companies use their HUB certification as a marketing tool, but now they will have to find other ways to attract customers, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know some folks that are sweating because they see their certification as the only means of doing business at the state level,\u201d Callier said. \u201cThe bottom line is that\u2019s not the case, but you have to suit up and go after it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartman, the government contracting adviser, said losing her HUB status is unlikely to put her out of business, but she saw her revenue drop after the Comptroller\u2019s office froze the program. <\/p>\n

Hartman\u2019s company is paid by procurement offices and chambers of commerce to host seminars explaining the certification process to other small businesses, and she said many of them have been canceled since the freeze began. Clients have hesitated to renew their contracts with her company after the freeze began, she added, and the company stands to lose as much as 25% of its annual revenue this year alone. <\/p>\n

As she fields calls from confused clients and works to interpret the latest guidance from the Comptroller, Hartman has spent the past week driving back and forth between the Houston area and Austin as she moves her father into hospice care. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having to make a decision between what\u2019s right for my industry, what\u2019s right for my company, what\u2019s right for my clients and what\u2019s right for me as a daughter being there for my family,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cI\u2019ve been an entrepreneur for 23 years \u2026 this has been the hardest year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy , and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[918,5621,287,1564,27,2794,29,293,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-80198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-economy","9":"tag-kelly-hancock","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-state-government","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-comptroller-of-public-accounts","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-legislature","16":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80198","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=80198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}