Houston company fights suit brought by Trump-related firm
A Houston financial tech firm working with more than a million small businesses across the country is fighting a lawsuit alleging that one of its grant programs constitutes racial discrimination.
The lawsuit was filed in August by America First Legal, which is led by Trump administration alumni such as the former president’s political adviser Stephen Miller. The suit takes aim at a grant program announced in May by Hello Alice in partnership with Progressive Insurance. The Driving Business Forward program awarded 10 grants of $25,000 each to Black entrepreneurs to use toward the purchase of a commercial vehicle.
Hello Alice connects smallbusiness owners, including about 25,000 in the Houston area, with capital, networks and business services. Elizabeth Gore, president and co-founder, called the lawsuit frivolous.
“It’s a waste of money and time. It’s meritless,” Gore said. “It is taking away from building a great economy with great jobs, in our opinion.”
America First Legal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some of Hello Alice’s programs are open to all small businesses, Gore said, while others focus on particular groups such as Black entrepreneurs, women, people with disabilities, or veterans who may face challenges when it comes to accessing capital. During the course of activeduty military service, for example, veterans may not develop an extensive credit history.
The grant program named in the lawsuit is one of several that Hello Alice has administered in partnership with Progressive. The 10 recipients included Kidz on Wheelz, a child transportation service headquartered in Mansfield.
America First Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of Nathan Roberts, a white trucker in Ohio whose small delivery company has commercial insurance through Progressive. Roberts says he learned of the $25,000 grant, which was only available to Black-owned businesses. America First Legal maintains in the lawsuit that the grant is a contract and is therefore subject to federal anti-discrimination laws.
“This was a very popular program,” said one senior administration official. “There will be future (funding) rounds, and we’re looking forward to having more conversations with utilities, technology firms and states.”
The resilience of the U.S. power grid has fallen into increasing question in recent years, with large scale blackouts like that which swept Texas in 2021 during Winter Storm Uri.
Earlier this year, Jim Robb, president of the regulatory body North American Electric Reliability Corp., said the combination of extreme weather and the retirement of coal and gas plants pushed out by low cost wind and solar energy represented a growing threat to the power grid.
“It’s highly concerning because as we move forward we’re going to need to be adding more kilowatt hours than we have now because of electrification policies and electric transportation,” he said. “We’re having enough trouble keeping up with where we are right now.”