February 25, 2025
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to report on the veterans interagency task force, to require the Comptroller General of the United States to report on access to credit for small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Successful Entrepreneurship for Reservists and Veterans Act
or the SERV Act
.
Sec. 2. Reporting requirement for veterans interagency task force
Section 32(c) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657b(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(4) Report
Along with the budget justification documents for the Small Business Administration submitted to Congress in connection with the budget for a fiscal year submitted under section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, the Administrator shall submit a report—
(A)
discussing the appointments made to and activities of the task force; and
(B)
identifying and outlining a plan for outreach and promotion of the programs and services for veterans, including Veteran Business Outreach Centers, Boots to Business, Boots to Business Reboot, Service-Disabled Entrepreneurship Development Training Program, Veteran Institute for Procurement, Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program, and Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship.
Sec. 3. GAO report on access to credit
(a) Report on access to credit
(1) In general
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit a report on the ability of small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals to access credit to—
(A)
the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate; and
(B)
the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives.
(2) Contents
The report submitted under paragraph (1) shall include, to the extent practicable, an analysis of—
(A)
the sources of credit used by small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals and the average percentage of the credit obtained from each source by such concerns;
(B)
the default rate for small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals, disaggregated by each source of credit described in subparagraph (A), as compared to the default rate for the source of credit for small business concerns generally;
(C)
the Federal lending programs available to provide credit to small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals;
(D)
gaps, if any, in the availability of credit for small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals that are not being filled by the Federal Government or private sources;
(E)
obstacles faced by covered individuals in trying to access credit;
(F)
the extent to which deployment and other military responsibilities affect the credit history of veterans and Reservists; and
(G)
the extent to which covered individuals are aware of Federal programs targeted towards helping covered individuals access credit.
(b) Definitions
In this Act:
(1) Covered individual
The term covered individual means—
(A)
a veteran;
(B)
a service-disabled veteran;
(C)
a Reservist;
(D)
the spouse of an individual described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C); or
(E)
the spouse of a member of the Armed Forces.
(2) Reservist
The term Reservist means a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces, as described in section 10101 of title 10, United States Code.
(3) Small Business Act definitions
The terms service-disabled veteran, small business concern, and veteran have the meanings given those terms, respectively, under section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632).
Sec. 4. Compliance with CUTGO
No additional amounts are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act or the amendments made by this Act.