AUSTIN (Nexstar) – The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts overhauled a program designed to provide more exposure to historically underutilized businesses in the state procurement process by removing female and minority-owned businesses from the eligibility standards.

The program, initially called the historically underutilized business program (HUB), will now only be eligible to businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. Those specific individuals were eligible under the old guidelines. The program name is also changed to VetHUB, which stands for Veteran Heroes United in Business.

Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock said he believed the original statute that created the HUB program was unconstitutional and discriminated based on race and gender.

Since the 1990s, the HUB program served small businesses that were owned by an “economically disadvantaged person.” That term was defined to include:

• Black Americans
• Hispanic Americans
• Women
• Asian Pacific Americans
• Native Americans
• Service-disabled veterans

It was this definition and list of races in the statute that made Hancock believe the program was unconstitutional.

“To assume somebody is economically disadvantaged simply based on race or eliminate people from having this preferential treatment in the procurement process, or the contract process with the state, that’s just discriminatory and doesn’t abide within the Constitution,” Hancock said in an one-on-one interview with Nexstar.

Hancock assumed the interim rule after former Comptroller Glenn Hegar stepped down to become the new Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. Hancock said when he entered the role the state was already facing a lawsuit from a non-HUB business that claimed the program was unconstitutional.

That lawsuit was filed in 2024 by Aerospace Solutions. The company alleged in its original complaint that “the HUB Program violates the Equal Protection Clause’s demand that the government not discriminate on the basis of race.”

Hancock said the Texas Office of the Attorney General refused to take up the case and defend the comptroller’s office when it was filed. He said his agency followed suit and when he entered the job he wanted to find a way to “broaden it and get rid of the discriminatory questions within the statute.”

Supporters of the program have argued the program never gave preferential treatment to HUB-certified businesses to earn a government contract. State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who helped codify the program back in the 1990s, was disappointed when he learned of the rule changes.

“This is not a DEI program,” West explained. “It’s a good faith program to make sure that all businesses, female and male, get an opportunity to participate in the procurement process.”

West said he has never seen an executive agency, or the governor, repeal a statute and rename a program specifically designated in the statute. He believes the agency is overstepping its rulemaking authority.

The new VetHUB program is only eligible for service-disabled veterans. Hancock believes changing to this rule gets rid of any discriminatory factors within the statute. “It’s leveled the playing field so that all businesses, regardless of ethnicity, are treated equally,” Hancock explained.

According to the fiscal year 2025 semi-annual report on the HUB program, there were 15,762 registered companies. More than 15,000 of those companies lost eligibility in the program after the Comptroller’s decision. West said any one of those companies or organizations could take a legal action to challenge the agency’s rulemaking authority.

Hancock said he hopes it does not come to that. “We hope not because I think everybody agrees with the Constitution and that all people should be treated equally,” Hancock explained.

Donald Trump pardons Henry Cuellar, claims Joe Biden targeted him

President Trump said Wednesday he was granting a full and unconditional pardon to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife, Imelda, who last year were indicted on charges related to allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes and laundering the funds.

In a Truth Social post announcing the pre-emptive pardon, Trump asserted that Cuellar was unfairly targeted by the Biden administration because of the congressman’s willingness to criticize the White House’s immigration policies.

“He said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country, and he was right. He didn’t like open borders,” President Trump told reporters. He added that he thought Cuellar was treated very badly.

The Justice Department in March 2024 indicted the Cuellars on 14 counts. The indictment outlined payments Henry Cuellar allegedly accepted from an oil company owned by the Azerbaijan government and a Mexican bank.

A judge in August dismissed two of the 14 counts in the case at the request of federal prosecutors and set a trial for next year.

Cuellar thanked President Trump for the pardon. He told Nexstar reporter Vinay Simlot that he believed the charges were motivated by politics.

“I went back and checked how many times I was critical of the Biden administration’s open borders. In national media, over 150 times. Over 150 times. And I tried to work with them but they didn’t listen,” Cuellar said.

McCaul: Afghan refugees shouldn’t pay for one ‘bad apple’

In the wake of the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington D.C., Congressman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is calling the attack, and its fallout, “incredibly sad and tragic.”

Federal officials say the suspect in the shooting is an Afghan national who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee after working alongside the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Since the shooting, President Trump directed his administration to suspend all Afghan immigration cases and prioritize the deportation of Afghan nationals whose removals were already ordered. In addition, the administration announced three separate arrests of Afghan nationals accused of terrorism in the days after the D.C. shooting.

“The protection and safety of Americans and our homeland will remain our singular focus and mission,” read one portion of a DHS news release detailing one of those arrests.

Rep. McCaul has been one of the most vocal advocates for Afghan refugees since the withdrawal in 2021. He said that the freeze in immigration cases could be life-threatening for those who fought alongside U.S. forces.

“We told them, our Afghan partners in Afghanistan, if you work with us to defeat the Taliban, we will protect you from them,” McCaul said. “And we broke our word on that promise, and we left them behind in Afghanistan to be hunted down by the Taliban.”

Before the shootings, McCaul said he had pushed for authorization of a program to help get special immigrant visa holders out of Afghanistan and out of harm’s way.

“I hope that authorization will still pass the Congress so we can help them. But we’re going to have to reexamine the whole program in light of this shooting that took place. And I know the Trump administration’s put a hold on all these cases,” McCaul said.

“Unfortunately, this one bad apple has really ruined the lives of so many Afghans that we promised we would protect,” McCaul added.

Texas families now have more time to say goodbye after baby loss

The state is taking steps to help families have more time to say goodbye after a stillbirth or infant loss.

A new law passed during the last regular legislative session now requires hospitals with maternity wards to have cooling devices available to preserve a baby for up to 72 hours. The cooling bassinets can slow down natural changes to a baby’s body after death. The law also states that training must be provided for staff on how to care for grieving families.

“We want to make sure that those experiences are treated with respect, with the compassion that they deserve, but that we’re not re-traumatizing families,” explained State Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Plano.

In March, Plesa told lawmakers during a public health committee hearing for House Bill 37 that, “in Texas alone approximately 2,000 babies are stillborn annually.” She pushed for the legislation after meeting the Talman family from North Texas who had experienced a loss. Plesa named the law Everly’s Law in honor of their daughter — Everly Grace Talman.

A new state law aims to provide more support to grieving families. (KXAN Photo/Arezow Doost)

“We as a state must be providing all the resources that we possibly can to these families,” Plesa added. “We have created the golden standard for neonatal bereavement care when it comes to losing a child in the nation. So, we’re hearing from lawmakers all across the nation that want to know what we did and how we did it.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services is in the planning stages of implementing the new law. The agency tracks infant deaths, which were trending down in the last four years but, according to early data and analysis by KXAN, there’s been a 7.7% increase since 2021. The data shows the leading causes of death are birth defects, preterm births and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS. A DSHS spokesperson said the state is just presenting the data and not planning on doing any analysis.

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