WASHINGTON - The Senate approved legislation yesterday to expand small-business loans and other government benefits for military reservists and veterans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan - a victory for two New England lawmakers who pushed for the expansion.
Senators John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, first proposed the Military Reservist and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and Opportunity Act last March, but the bill had to clear several hurdles before lawmakers reached a compromise.
Among other provisions, the bill allows the head of the Small Business Administration to provide $50,000 loans to part-time service members and veterans without collateral. It also authorizes more than $4 million over the next two years for the agency's Office of Veterans Business Development.
"We tried to get this done several times," Kerry, chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said yesterday before returning to Boston from Washington. "I feel good about finally getting it done."
Earlier in the day Kerry had told colleagues that the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously by voice vote, was "one of my highest priorities" since becoming chairman of the small-business panel in January.
A companion version of the bill, sponsored by Representative Jason Altmire, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives, possibly this week. President Bush has indicated he will sign the measure into law when it reaches his desk.
The legislation grew out of a study Kerry's staff completed earlier this year that found the rate of unemployment among veterans to be more than twice the national average.
Using government data, the study found that 11.9 percent of recently discharged military veterans are unemployed, compared with 4.6 percent of the general population. It also found that 18 percent of veterans ages 18 to 24 are out of work - double the rate of their civilian counterparts.
Meanwhile, an estimated 40 percent of reservists lose income when called up to active duty, while the rate is higher, 55 percent, for reservists who are self-employed, the March report found. 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.
The Kerry-Snowe bill creates a federal task force to coordinate the multiple federal agencies involved in assisting veterans. It also provides relief to small businesses that employ National Guard or Reserve troops, which will help them safeguard the jobs service members leave behind for active duty.
The bill also provides grants to the SBA's Small Business Development Centers to expand its outreach to veterans, many of whom are unaware of the federal programs or have found it difficult to take advantage of them.
David Marrero, a recent veteran who is now in the Air National Guard, told the Globe last month that he was struggling to get a federal business loan to open a retail clothing store in Valdosta, Ga. Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, said the law will help keep a new generation of veterans like Marrero from falling through the cracks.
"Passing this legislation is the first step in ensuring that the brave men and women who put their lives on hold to defend our country will not also have to sacrifice their livelihoods," Kerry said in a statement yesterday.
Snowe, the ranking Republican on the small business panel, applauded Kerry in a statement. The "bipartisan and bicameral" legislation, she said, "will greatly assist veteran entrepreneurs and the small businesses that employ them, as well as companies that help supply our defense needs."
Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com
