To waive the guarantee fee for certain business loans made to veterans and spouses of veterans, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill eliminates SBA guarantee fees on loans up to $1,000,000 made to veteran-owned small businesses under both the 7(a) and 504/CDC loan programs. It also reduces the minimum equity injection (down payment) requirement by at least 5 percentage points for veteran startup and change-of-ownership loans. The bill mandates the SBA collect and publish data on veteran participation in its loan programs and entrepreneurial support services.
Who Benefits and How
- Veteran-owned small businesses gain significant cost savings by avoiding upfront and ongoing guarantee fees on SBA loans up to $1M, and face lower down-payment requirements for startup and acquisition loans.
- Spouses and surviving spouses of veterans receive the same fee waivers and reduced equity injection requirements.
- Reservists and Transition Assistance Program participants are explicitly included in the expanded definition of eligible veterans.
- SBA-approved lenders may see increased loan volume to veterans due to reduced borrower costs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
- Small Business Administration absorbs the revenue lost from waived guarantee fees and must build systems to collect and report new veteran participation data.
- Taxpayers implicitly bear the cost of the fee waivers, as SBA guarantee fees help offset the cost of loan defaults.
- Non-veteran small business borrowers see no change, but the relative cost advantage of being a veteran borrower increases.
Key Provisions
- Waives all upfront and ongoing SBA guarantee fees for veteran-owned business loans of $1M or less under 7(a) and 504/CDC programs (Section 3)
- Reduces minimum equity injection by at least 5 percentage points for veteran startup/acquisition loans (Section 4)
- Broadly defines eligible veterans to include active-duty transitioning, reservists, spouses, and surviving spouses (Sections 3, 4)
- Requires SBA to publish veteran participation data on its website and in budget justification materials (Section 5)
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Waives SBA guarantee fees on loans up to $1,000,000 to veteran-owned small businesses, reduces equity injection requirements by at least 5 percentage points for veteran startup loans, and mandates data collection on veteran participation in SBA loan and assistance programs.
Key Policy Areas
Small Business, Veterans Affairs, Finance
Primary Purpose
Waives SBA guarantee fees on loans up to $1,000,000 to veteran-owned small businesses, reduces equity injection requirements by at least 5 percentage points for veteran startup loans, and mandates data collection on veteran participation in SBA loan and assistance programs.
Policy Domains
Veteran SBA Loan Fee Waivers and Equity Injection
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Veteran-owned small businesses
- Spouses and surviving spouses of veterans
- SBA-approved lenders
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Small Business Administration
- Federal taxpayers
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Markey (for himself and Mrs. Shaheen) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Veteran entrepreneurs, Veteran-owned small businesses, Veteran-owned small businesses (startups)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Small Business Administration
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Includes veterans, Transition Assistance Program-eligible individuals, reserve component members, their spouses, and surviving spouses of those who died while serving or from service-connected disability.
An investment by a borrower in the applicable small business concern, in the form and amount determined appropriate by the Administrator.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology