In the December 7 episode, acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock discusses key dates for the voucher program, and why he removed women and minorities from the state’s Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program, replacing them with disabled vets. State Senator Royce West tells us why he doesn’t think Hancock can do that and if he thinks the saga will end up in court. And Congressman Pat Fallon on why he still has confidence in the Secretary of War.
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Straight ahead, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett making a special announcement Monday. Will she run for US Senate? Tuesday marks a big milestone for school vouchers. Private schools can begin registering. Comptroller Kelly Hancock on what to expect and why his office ended a 30 year old program to help women and minority owned businesses.
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State Senator Royce West accusing Hancock though of overstepping his authority, saying the acting comptroller cannot end a law he does not like. Democrats drew him out of a district in California, so will Republican Congressman Darrell Issa moved to Texas to run again. And should Congress launch an independent investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth?
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One of our questions for Representative Pat Fallon, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Hey Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whiteley starts now. Thanks for being here. I'm Jason Whiteley. A lot to cover, so let's start here with the headlines and the big question right now Will Jasmine Crockett run for Senate? We will find out Monday afternoon. She has scheduled a special announcement at 4:30 in Dallas. Lots of chatter from Democrats.
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She might announce a run for US Senate, something she told us she was considering. If so, she would join Colin Allred and James Tallarico in the Democratic primary next March. A congressman from California was said to be considering a move to Texas to run here. It's Republican Darrell Issa from San Diego. Democrats there in California redrew his district to make it more Democratic. Issa was reportedly thinking about the newly drawn 32nd congressional district in Texas from Farmers' ranch over to East Texas.
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Democrat Julie Johnson in the position now. The deadline for candidates to file for office is Monday at 6 p.m. And they are on opposite sides of the issue. They don't know each other personally, so why did Donald Trump pardon Henry Cuellar? Certainly a fair question. The president is a Republican, as we all know. Cuellar is a Democrat from Laredo. A grand jury indicted him last year on bribery charges. Trump said Cuellar was targeted by Biden's DOJ.
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When asked whether he might now switch parties and become a Republican, Cuellar said, quote, Nothing changes. Tuesday marks a major milestone for school vouchers in Texas. That's when private schools can begin registering. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is first up here with what to expect and why his office ended a 30 year old program to help women and minority owned businesses. Kelly, it's good to see you again.
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Yeah, great to see you on Tuesday, the 9th of December, private schools can begin registering for the to participate in the school voucher program, 1700 to 2000 of them in Texas. How many do you think will actually participate? Oh,
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we hope quite a few. I mean, it is voluntary. We're not requiring anybody. This is not big government. What it is is the government opening up. The freedom of education to both private schools and families, but
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dig into this for us here. December 9th is when this opens up for private schools. What have other states done? Have they had half of their private schools register, or what are you thinking here?
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More than that, I think. We have a a larger number than that and, and there's no reason not to participate in it because we're not telling you how to operate your school, we're not telling you what to teach and so there's all the incentive available to register and I, I think we'll have, you know, a, a very large number, much more than 50%, uh, register with the state and in this first year and then I think as they see it they'll continue to register. There's really no reason not to.
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We're not gonna force any student on you. And we're not gonna tell you what to do and so uh we're encouraging the schools. I've gone to a number of campuses already and, and we look for great participation on both sides.
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As a parent, when will I know if my school's participating?
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Uh, shortly after the first of the year, I mean before the registration starts, um, for the families, we'll have the list there, and I do think the list will grow, but we do have to cut it off so the parents know exactly who's participating and not at some point.
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Let's talk about the firm that's going to be managing the voucher program. You selected Odyssey to run this. It was. The lowest bidder you passed over more experienced vendors that are out there. Tell us how you arrived at Odyssey and why you think they're the best. Yeah,
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it, it's just kind of the best fit. I mean, we, we did the end of, well, we're looking for value. I mean, it's one of the things throughout the agency. Once I got there, you know, I looked at a lot of the different programs and. You know, and they were, there's been the question, what, how do we do this? I want the best value. I want what we think is the best for Texas, and they have experience. We kind of looked at where their experience and where their failures were.
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Look, all of them out there had, had failures along the way, but we felt like we wanted something that we could be a partner with, not just a firm that we, we selected. Uh, but someone we could partner with that understood the goals and expectations and our very first meeting, the staff wanted me to meet with them because they kind of. They knew I would lay down, here's the expectations and you're not gonna fall short and we laid it out and told them we will be successful in our in our office.
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We don't talk about anything but this being a successful program.
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Odyssey though has never dealt with this kind of money before. If you add up all the 8 states it's gotten before, you put all that together, it's never dealt with the kind of money that Texas is laying out there. Can it, can it manage this, do you think?
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Look, nobody's dealt with this. This is the first, you know, it's the largest in the country. And absolutely we're gonna, we're gonna make it
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work. Let's talk about the uh historically underutilized businesses here. You, you just announced the new rules for historically underutilized businesses and the, the state is going to strip away the designation for, for women and minority businesses and only favor veterans with disabilities. Talk to me about the decision, why you guys made that decision.
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Well, we wanted a level playing field in the state of Texas. HUB is DEI using different initials. You know it's a race-based, a gender-based criteria, and in Texas we don't want race-based or gender-based. We, we don't want any discrimination. We want a level playing field for all businesses and yet we recognize that the disabled vets, so VetHub, which is the new name, the new name, so VetHub will.
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Totally focused on disabled vets.
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Let me ask you about that because your website has a tremendous amount of information on it. I went to the website to get some numbers here. There are 15,762 registered historically underutilized businesses with the Comptroller's office. They only got 11% of state expenditures last year. The other 89% went to the big companies. Are these small companies really? Being that unfair and messing the playing field up for everyone else,
< spk_1 - 00:06:59.7200000 >
well, I don't know if they're all big companies that aren't getting the, you know, just because you're a hub doesn't mean. You're not a small business or a mid mid-size business. Again, 99.8% of the businesses in the state of Texas are small businesses, but.
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The number that are hubs is very limited because it's race-based and gender based and so and again when it comes to to contracts or procurements, our main purpose with your tax dollars is to make sure we get best value for the state.
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Kelly, it's good
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to see you. Great seeing you.
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All right, let's bring in the roundtable to talk about the politics of this. Bud Kennedy is here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Ashley Goode is political director at Caveview in Austin, and Natalie Haddad is a political reporter at WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth. But let's begin with you about the historically underutilized businesses. The comptroller, the acting comptroller says it's another form of DEI. State Senator Royce West will be on in a moment with a lot more to say about that. But if this ends up in a legal issue, could this weigh down the governor and the acting comptroller in an election year next year?
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Well, obviously there's conflict over what the legislature can do. This was a law passed in the 90s when Democrats controlled the legislature of the House, and it was actually signed by Governor Bush. It was something that it doesn't really amount to a set aside or any sort of special favor, Jason. It's just putting minority. And women-owned businesses on a state list is all it is. The Republicans have stood against affirmative action for more than 20 years now. To Comptroller Hancock, this is just doing away with more affirmative action.
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And Ashley, can they really label this as DEI? The actual statute, I went back to read it from 1995 and it said that state agencies must make a good faith effort to consider women and minority owned businesses. Is this DEI in your opinion?
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Well, I, I, OK, so I think that's a, that's a strong question that you asked me, Jason. I mean, a lot of DEI initiatives that were in colleges and universities said something similar, right? Is that you have to at least take these people that we're recruiting that, uh, typically do not get these jobs and at least consider them. That doesn't say you have to give them the, the contract. It doesn't say that you have to.
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Do anything special to try to, it was just a recruitment tool, and I think that Hub was also a recruitment tool that was needed that a lot of people would argue is still needed to ensure that everyone has a chance and everyone has an equal, you know, seat seat at the table. So, so to some degree I guess the answer is yes.
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And then Natalie, what, what should we be watching for next on this? That's
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a wonderful question. I think this is incredibly ironic for Mr. Hancock to say that he's looking for a level playing field, but now we have Vet hub, and let me be clear, all the respect in the world to military service members past and present, I think we're going to have a lot of questions similar to what you asked Ashley. Can we consider this DEI because when this program was frozen back in October, the comptroller's office said that this was to make sure that the hub was following the executive. Orders of Governor Abbott and President Trump.
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I think we forget that veterans, also disabled veterans, all military service members, are often spoken about in the framework of DEI. So is this ending all DEI? Is this really following the executive orders of eliminating DEI? No, it sounds like it's only eliminating parts of DEI.
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We'll come back to you guys in just a moment here. A lot more ahead here, including this. When we come back here, State Senator Royce West says the acting comptroller cannot just kill a bill he doesn't like. And will West consider running for Congress? Plus Congressman Pat Fallon from the House Armed Services Committee on the latest scandal surrounding Secretary Pete Hegseth when Inside Texas politics returns.
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Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. Our next guest takes issue with our last interview. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, you may have just heard there, is ending a 30 year old program that helped women and minority owned businesses here in the state. State Senator Royce West though says Hancock cannot end that. He is a Democrat from Dallas. Senator, good to see you again. My pleasure.
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We just had the acting comptroller on here a moment ago, and he says that, listen, I'm ending the state's hub program, historically underutilized business program. It's only going to be for veterans now who have disabilities, no longer for women and minorities. Can he do that?
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I, I don't think he can, to be honest with you. It's
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in, it's in statute,
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right? Well, it's, it's, it's, it's a law and something called separations of powers. The legislative branch of government is responsible for passing laws. The executive branch is responsible for implementing those laws, not deciding whether or not those laws should exist or not. And it appears that that's what he's attempting to do here.
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So the acting comptroller says we're doing this under emergency rules. Is that a way around it?
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No, I mean, rules are rules, statutes are statutes, and so we're looking at the actions that he's taken thus far to see whether or not they're legal. And if they're not, then you know we'll apprise him as such and see whether or not he agrees. And if not, then we'll we'll. Get it resolved.
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Well, that was my next question. Is this something that might end up in court, end up in legal action? Do you
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think I'm hoping that it doesn't. I think that this is what I want to say, Jason. All of the press that's come as a, as a result of his interview with you, he's been quoted as, or people are saying that this is a DEI program, OK? This is not a quota program. You got to understand this program was put in place under President Bush, who was governor at the time, so he would never have passed a quota program.
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It's a good faith program, and you'll see prior to the implementation of this program that most, mostly all the contracts are going to Anglos in the state of Texas. And so what we put in statute on a bipartisan basis. was a program that said you use good faith, you use good faith to make certain that women. Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, African Americans all get an opportunity to participate.
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It doesn't guarantee you an opportunity to participate. It says you get the opportunity.
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Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has a big announcement on Monday. If she decides that she's going to run for US Senate, that will open up her seat in District 30. I know you've. Flirted with, thought about Congress in years past. Is that something you'd be interested in?
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The reality is, no, to answer the question. I'm not interested in it because I think that we've got to get another generation of leaders coming forward. I'm I've been serving as state senator for 32 years. I don't feel no ways tired, but we've got to develop other leaders. I won't be one of those going to
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Congress. Senator, good to see you again. I appreciate the time.
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Nice seeing you also. Season greetings.
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More questions now around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and whether he ordered the military to quote kill everybody after a strike on a drug boat left no survivors. Congressman Pat Fallon is a Republican from North Texas and he sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Welcome back to the program. Secretary Hegseth has been in the news a lot this year, from, uh, you know, sharing those sensitive military plans on the WhatsApp app to these now questions about whether he issued a kill everybody order.
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I'm curious at this point, do you still have confidence in Secretary Hegseth's leadership?
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I do. And, and particularly when you're talking about these strikes against narco-terrorists, when you do the math and look at how many Americans were losing to drug overdoses every year, it's about 100,000. It's about 219 a day. And look at the greatest challenge the United States ever faced, which is World War Two. We're losing about 290, um, um, mostly men a day. I mean, that, that's like uh asymmetrical warfare being waged on the United States. with these narco-terrorists.
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So I fully support the, it's acting as a pretty great deterrent to say, listen, if you're gonna smuggle drugs into our country and kill this many Americans, you're going to face consequences.
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But, you know, at the end of the day, the US military for decades has not, has not, uh, you know, killed people who are wounded or people who aren't, uh, uh, you know, fighting anymore. Was this a step too far?
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Well, think about this, uh, when we had, you when you're talking about terrorists, they're not, uh, military soldiers of an enemy. Like the Osama bin Laden. They were there to kill Osama bin Laden. We, the goal wasn't to capture him. The goal, so if he held his hands up, you're gonna die for what you did in killing 3, almost 3000 Americans. There are consequences for actions.
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And when you have a drone strike, for instance, when you're going into, you've identified that there's a terrorist and you're going to the aim is to kill them.
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But Osama bin Laden was wanted for 9/11. I mean we were clear to my knowledge who was actually on these boats.
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Oh no, there's, they, they, they know that these are narcoterrorists and the narco-terrorists know what's on those boats. They are chopped to the gills with cocaine, mostly cocaine, but cocaine, uh, methamphetamine, uh, etc. and those are, again, killing 100,000 Americans a year. So there's consequences for uh the, the choices that you make.
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Secretary Hegseth has, has reportedly defended his action as a fog of war, but We're not at war, so I, I, I'm curious how that sits with you.
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Well, to be honest, let's talk about what we're, what we're discussing now is a report, a media report using anonymous sources and secondary hearsay. So, it's, uh, I, I'm not gonna comment on that as that is facts to begin with. So we got to look at the premise. We're really hypothetically talking about if this situation did occur as is.
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Based on the questions that are out there right now, would you support an independent investigation into this?
< spk_6 - 00:16:54.9790000 >
Uh, I think that we can handle that, you know, with, with a congressional oversight. I sit on the Intel Committee, I sit in the Armed Services Committee as well. Uh, and we'll see what happened. I don't think that there's a need for that. I do trust the United States military to investigate what, what happened in the administration as well.
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Congressman, we appreciate the time as always.
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Thank you. Take care and God bless.
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The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics. And you can keep up with Texas politics all throughout the week by subscribing to our podcast. It's called Y'alllitics. New content, fresh interviews, and episodes drop every Sunday morning wherever you get your podcasts. This is Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whiteley. All right, time now for reporters roundtable to put the headlines in perspective.
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Bud, Ashley, Natalie all back with us here. Bud, let's start with you. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett with that big announcement on Monday afternoon. She, she said that she was going to consider running for Senate Democrats, you know, telling me that that's likely what's gonna happen here. She said she would only run though if polls showed that she could win. Can she win?
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You know, the question for Democrats is not can she win, but can she help a Democrat win any Democrat on the ticket, can she fire up enough Democrats and get them turned out to get any Democrat elected? On the other hand, she might fire up enough Republicans to lose the election or to lose the election from down ballot Democrats. That is what Democrats are looking at. I do think she's a stronger candidate than Tallarico. He's perceived as a mushy Austin Democrat.
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I think Colin Alred still would be a good candidate overall in general, but he looks like he won't make it through the
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primary. And Ashley Crockett obviously banking on Paxton being the nominee. I think Tallarico and Allred are too.
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Yeah, I mean, I think that a lot of people feel like they could go up against Attorney General Ken Paxton because I think there are people who feel strongly about him one way or the other opposed to Senator John Cornyn who has done things uh in a bipartisan fashion over his years in office and so he might be a.
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A Little harder for a Democrat to defeat, especially if it's a Democrat who is so incredibly outspoken and a little further, uh, you know, to the left, someone like Representative Crockett, I think they feel like they could have better chances going up against Paxson for
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sure. And Natalie, what's your take on this?
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Oh yeah, I think, you know, I think there is a reason that the likes of say Cornyn's team has taken the time to attack Crockett before she even made a decision. Now of course she has been teasing this for weeks. She said on network television in the past week that she is closer to yes than no and that she has talked to the Tallarico campaign. So much to what Bud Kennedy was saying just a moment ago, it's, can she help other Democrats win? What does it look like to have all three of them going against the. Each other, I think this is going to be, I'm really anticipating this. This is basically what I'm getting at.
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Yes, no, I think a lot of us are too. But the next question is the other big news midweek or so was President Trump pardoning Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar from Laredo. Cuellar says he's not switching parties. Why in the world did the president do this? Well,
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because the president has just become the pardon me president. He's like, You know, bribery, he loves it. You know, bid rigging, let them go. He says, sure, let them out. If they were prosecuted, as long as you were prosecuted by Joe Biden's Justice Department, hey, let's get them out of there. Let, let them go free. It's like even a Democrat in South Texas, the Republicans want to beat him and win that seat, and yet Trump says let him go. It's all about Trump against Joe Biden.
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Ashley, do you think we're going to see anything from Quay Do you think he's gonna start voting Trump's way?
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I don't think he's necessarily going to vote the way of President Trump, but he was very critical of the Biden administration in their handling of the border, and I think if he, you know, believes that the policies that President Trump are putting into place are having a positive effect, I think he is going to be vocal and say that. And, and I mean, but I think that's just him representing his district and his constituency, not necessarily him, you know, kissing the ring of the president. And
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Natalie, South Texas, even the Rio Grande Valley, they're all becoming a little more red.
< spk_4 - 00:21:05.1600000 >
Yeah, and I think, yeah, purple is also a good way to put it, uh, you know, I think, you know this isn't the first time President Trump has offered to or has pardoned people who are in some scandal, if you want to call it that, and I'm not surprised that Cueller would say that he's not going to switch parties. I don't know that I would be surprised to see him vote in Trump's favor, uh, but you know, time will tell.
< spk_0 - 00:21:27.2800000 >
Thanks so much. We appreciate it as always. Thank you for watching as well. We're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics. We hope to see you then. Have a great one.