By: Cathy Gomez, December 6, 2025
The State of Texas has overhauled its 30-year-old Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program: under emergency rules issued December 2, 2025, the program is being rebranded as Veteran Heroes United in Business program (VetHUB), and its eligibility criteria have been changed dramatically.
• Under the new rules, only small businesses owned and operated by veterans with at least a 20% service-connected disability will qualify.
• Businesses previously certified under HUB solely on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender (e.g. minority-owned or women-owned businesses) will have their certification revoked and will be removed from the state’s HUB vendor directory.
• The restructuring comes after a temporary suspension of new and renewed HUB certifications announced in late October 2025. That freeze was described as a legal and administrative review intended to ensure compliance with constitutional requirements and recent directives against race, or sex-based preferences.
• Historically, the HUB program was designed to increase access to state contracts for “economically disadvantaged” businesses, including minority-owned, women-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned firms.
The purge of minority and women-owned businesses from the program has drawn sharp criticism from advocates, lawmakers, and members of the business community:
• Some argue that the changes undermine decades of efforts to ensure equitable access to state contracting for groups historically excluded from major procurement opportunities.
• Critics also raise concerns about the legality of the change: since the original program’s parameters were set by state law, they argue that only the Legislature (or a court) has the authority to alter eligibility, not the Comptroller’s office acting alone.
• For many minority- and women-owned firms, the decision effectively closes off a state-level pathway for visibility and contracting opportunities, disproportionately impacting those already navigating structural disadvantages.
In sum, the shift from HUB to VetHUB represents a major rollback of state-supported access for minority- and women-owned businesses in Texas, shrinking the definition of “underutilized” and realigning the program’s focus toward service-disabled veteran-owned firms. It marks a significant transformation in the state’s approach to public contracting and economic inclusion, one with serious implications for DEI efforts in the business community.
Source:
Texas Sweethearts DEI Forum 
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