Good news is here for women and minority business owners in Texas. On April 14, 2026, an Austin district judge temporarily ordered the reinstatement of Texas’s Historically Underutilized Business program. For the thousands of small business owners who had their certifications pulled in December 2025, that’s a big deal.

The ruling follows a lawsuit filed on March 2 by four Texas business owners and a trade association who argued the state had overstepped its authority. For Forest Cole Langston, Texas entrepreneur and founder of Blue Line Real Estate Consulting LLC, the case is a pointed reminder of something every small business owner needs to hear: state-level policy changes can hit your bottom line fast, and staying informed isn’t optional.

What Is the HUB Program?

The Historically Underutilized Business program was established through bipartisan legislation in the 1990s to help minority- and women-owned businesses compete for state contracts on more equal footing. The program doesn’t set hard quotas. It establishes goals that state agencies work toward when awarding contracts.

The scale of what was at stake becomes clear pretty fast when you look at the numbers. In 2024 alone, HUB-certified businesses received 3,634 state contracts worth more than $4 billion. At its peak, more than 15,000 businesses held active certifications.

What Changed, and Why Businesses Sued

In December 2025, acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock restructured the program, making women and minority business owners no longer eligible. Going forward, certifications were limited to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, which shrank the program from over 15,000 participants to just under 500.

In response, four businesses and the greater Houston chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors filed suit on March 2. They argued that Hancock had:

• exceeded his authority
• violated due process
• bypassed the legislature

The real-world damage was immediate. Ruben Mercado Jr. of Ipsum General Contractors lost a $1 million contract bid directly because his certification was stripped. Across the state, members of the National Association of Minority Contractors saw contracts canceled and work unexpectedly returned to open competitive bidding.

What the Court Decided

On April 14, Judge Amy Meachum of Travis County temporarily blocked Hancock’s emergency rules, ordered the reinstatement of the six businesses involved in the suit, and directed state agencies to notify all decertified HUB businesses of the ruling. The comptroller’s office will appeal to the 15th Court of Appeals. A full trial is set for November 9, 2026.

What This Means for Texas Small Business Owners

A policy decision made without legislative approval cost real Texas business owners real contracts, and a court has now stepped in to temporarily reverse it.

Forest Cole Langston puts it plainly: the regulatory environment your business operates in can shift fast. Owners who get caught off guard are usually the ones who weren’t paying attention. Certifications, contract pipelines, revenue expectations—none of it is immune to decisions made in Austin.

If your business held HUB certification, monitor this case closely. Follow the Texas Tribune’s ongoing coverage as it heads toward trial in November. And if you weren’t directly affected, the takeaway still applies: know the programs your business depends on, know who has the power to change them, and don’t wait for a court ruling to find out something has shifted.