Kerry seeks business loans for veterans

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry today plans to submit legislation that would expand federal business loans and other assistance to help reduce the unemployment rate among recently discharged service members, which government statistics indicate is as high as 18 percent for younger Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who chairs the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, is scheduled to unveil the bill along with a report on the economic difficulties facing returning veterans, especially members of the Reserve and National Guard who have put their civilian jobs on hold for repeated deployments.

The study by Kerry's committee staff, based on government data, found that 11.9 percent of recently discharged veterans are unemployed, compared with 4.6 percent of nonveterans; it found that 18 percent of 18-to 24-year-old veterans are out of work, double the rate of their nonveteran counterparts. Meanwhile, an estimated 40 percent of reservists lose income when called up, while the rate is even higher, 55 percent, for reservists who are self-employed, according to the report. At the same time, the share of small-business loans going to veterans from the largest federal program has dropped from 11 percent to 9 percent since 2001.

"After the Vietnam War, many veterans were left behind," said the report, a copy of which was provided by Kerry's office to the Globe yesterday. "Iraq and Afghanistan will yield a new generation of veterans who must not be forgotten."

"As more veterans and reservists return to civilian life after their service, the economic benefits and opportunities provided by the federal government will become even more critical, particularly in the field of entrepreneurship and business ownership," the 22-page report said.

Kerry's legislation, the Military Reservist and Veteran Small Business Re authorization Act, is designed to help individuals such as Dave Krasner of Boston, who started a computer consulting business just eight months before he was deployed to Iraq with the Massachusetts National Guard.

"We're about to lose our business because we have no capital to keep it going," Krasner said in an interview yesterday, saying that he would benefit not only from more federal assistance but simply more information about the series of programs already available to veteran business owners.

Krasner, who has testified before Kerry's committee, is not alone among reservists in the Bay State and elsewhere struggling to support their families after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Mark Aldrich of Byfield, another member of the Massachusetts National Guard, found it difficult to find help in the form of loans or business counseling.

Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, has advocated for other veterans in his role as chairman of the small business panel, which oversees the Small Business Administration and other federal programs designed to help citizens start their own businesses.

The bill would provide small-business grants worth up to $25,000 for qualified reservists. It would create a new pool of loans for reservists, for up to $100,000, that does not require collateral and would neither accrue interest nor have to be paid back during the first year. The bill would authorize more funds for the Office of Veterans Business Development at the Small Business Administration, and extend application deadlines for "economic injury disaster" loans from 90 days to a year after returning from duty.

"It's a first step and it's built on important lessons we learned from Vietnam not to leave another generation of veterans behind," Kerry said in a statement yesterday.

There are 1.1 million veterans who have left military service since 2001, the report said.

Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com