H.R. 828 — SERV Act

This section establishes an annual reporting requirement for the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Ownership. Along with the Small Business Administration's budget justification documents submitted to Congress each fiscal year, the SBA Administrator must submit a report that (1) discusses appointments made to and activities of the task force and (2) identifies and outlines a plan for outreach and promotion of specified veteran entrepreneurship programs (i.e., 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). (As background, the task force coordinates federal efforts to enhance capital access, business development, and federal contracting goals for veteran-owned small businesses.)

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to submit to the Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs and Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs and Small Business, not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, a report on the ability of small business concerns owned and controlled by covered individuals to access credit. The report must include, to the extent practicable, an analysis of (1) sources of credit used by such concerns and average percentages obtained from each; (2) default rates for such concerns disaggregated by credit source, compared to rates for small business concerns generally; (3) federal lending programs available to such concerns; (4) gaps in credit availability not filled by federal or private sources; (5) obstacles faced by covered individuals in accessing credit; (6) the extent to which deployment and military responsibilities affect credit histories of veterans and Reservists; and (7) awareness among covered individuals of federal credit-access programs. The section defines, for this Act, covered individual as a veteran, service-disabled veteran, Reservist (i.e., a member of a reserve component of the armed forces under 10 U.S.C. 10101), spouse of any such individual, or spouse of a member of the Armed Forces; and incorporates Small Business Act definitions of service-disabled veteran, small business concern, and veteran.