And now to a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the country, and it’s right here in Texas. It’s challenging state government action to dismantle a diversity-related contracting program. Fox 4’s Shaun Rabb explains the lawsuit against acting state comptroller Glenn Hancock and at least three state agencies. Late last year, as DEI policies begin being pulled down nationwide, acting Texas comptroller Glenn Hancock used an emergency rule to effectively change a law that had been passed by lawmakers that opened the door for minority and women-owned businesses to be able to compete where they had been excluded. Compete for some of the billions of dollars awarded each year in state contracts.
Minority and women-owned businesses or MWBEs have had a chance to win state contracts under a 35-year-old law that created the historically underutilized business program. Acting comptroller Glenn Hancock, by emergency rule in December, decertified some 15,000 MWBEs out of that program. New York civil rights attorney Alfonso David filed a lawsuit. He says the comptroller does not have the legal authority. And so we are suing him to make sure that we void these regulations and compel him to honor the statute that was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
>> I spoke with David, the lawyer, business owner Cortina Williams, and state senator Royce West. I was the co-author of the bill when it became law. That in the 1990s, when George W. Bush was governor. It was born out of the inability of minority and women-owned businesses to be able to even get an opportunity, an opportunity to compete.
>> For some of the billions of dollars in state contracts awarded each year. And I built my business model in Texas around the HUB certification. Cortina Williams moved to Texas 2 years ago, opening her Burleson-based Williams Restoration and Construction. The good faith bill makes no guarantees about getting a state contract, but I was in deep negotiations of talking with two different entities on contracts when this was snatched from me. Glenn Hancock was a state senator and desk mate of Royce West in the chamber before being appointed acting comptroller by Governor Abbott.
Before he just mailed it, I called him. And to this date he has refused to call back. So, you know, this was done off of political purposes to attempt to get him elected, and what happened? He came in third place. Our multiple calls seeking an interview with Hancock were not returned.
In a statement announcing his emergency rule, the acting comptroller says, “Texas has ended DEI-based preferences in state contracting and replaced them with a program that is fair, focused, and constitutional. Most importantly, we made service-disabled veterans the focus of this program, eliminating from HUB all others: black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and women-owned businesses.” The comptroller cannot look at a statute that has been passed by the legislature and signed by the governor and start crossing out certain words or certain provisions and then decide to create a new program that he believes should be enforced. While the state has not yet responded to the lawsuit it was filed Monday. Also, Glenn Hancock lost his race for comptroller.
So, we have to see who is the state’s next comptroller and if they stay with Hancock’s ruling or reverse it. Meantime, the lawsuit moves through the courts.
