A federal judge struck down the race-based portions of Houston’s minority contracting program, and Roland Martin says the decision is part of a broader attack on Black economic opportunity at the federal, state and local levels. For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (724) 264-8281 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to https://askchapter.org/roland Paid Partnership A federal judge has struck down the race-based portions of Houston’s Minority and Business Enterprise Program, ruling that the city’s use of racial preferences in public contracting violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The case was brought by two white landscaping business owners who sued after being denied certification, and the city has said it will no longer recognize or administer the MBE certification while the ruling stands. Roland Martin says Houston is one front in a much larger attack on Black economic opportunity. He points to challenges against minority contracting programs at the federal, state, county, city and school district levels and ties those efforts to what he describes as a broader right-wing campaign against Black infrastructure. The money at stake is enormous. Roland says Black-owned businesses received about $10 billion in federal contracts during the final year of the Biden-Harris administration, roughly 2% of federal contracting and a record level. He says that share has since fallen to 1.2%, representing nearly a $5 billion loss on the federal level alone. Those losses hit far beyond the businesses that lose contracts. Roland warns that Black-owned companies will be forced to cut staff, families will lose income, Black law and accounting firms will lose clients, and churches, HBCUs and charitable organizations will feel the downstream impact as billions of dollars are pulled out of Black communities. Black Star Network Partner: Chapter Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options We’ve launched our official Telegram channel. Follow for the latest videos from #RolandMartinUnfiltered & Black Star Network. No algorithms. Just updates. 👉🏾 t.me/blackstarnetwork Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjXB7nX8bL2U2sje8d212Yw/join Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork 👉🏾 Use Cash App by visiting Stripe https://buy.stripe.com/7sI3ccgYyfSQ8y45kl 👉🏾 PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ roland@rolandsmartin.com Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.