ERIC Number: ED603145
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug-27
Pages: 34
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
SBA Veterans Assistance Programs: An Analysis of Contemporary Issues. CRS Report R42695, Version 74. Updated
Dilger, Robert Jay; Lowry, Sean
Congressional Research Service
Several federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration (SBA), provide training and other assistance to veterans seeking civilian employment. For example, the Department of Defense (DOD), in cooperation with the SBA, Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, and several other federal agencies, operates the Transition Goals Plans Success program (Transition GPS), which provides employment information and entrepreneurship training to exiting military servicemembers to assist them in transitioning from the military to the civilian labor force. The SBA provides services to more than 100,000 veterans each year through its various management and technical assistance training partners (e.g., Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers [WBCs], Service Corps of Retired Executives [SCORE], and Veterans Business Outreach Centers [VBOCs]). This report opens with an examination of the economic circumstances of veteran-owned businesses drawn from the Bureau of the Census's 2012 Survey of Business Owners (SBO). It then provides a brief overview of veterans' employment experiences, comparing unemployment and labor force participation rates for veterans, veterans who have left the military since September 2001, and nonveterans. The report also describes employment assistance programs offered by several federal agencies to assist veterans in their transition from the military to the civilian labor force and examines, in greater detail, the SBA's veteran business development programs, the SBA's efforts to assist veterans' access to capital, and the SBA's veteran contracting programs. It also discusses the SBA's Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and P.L. 114-38, the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 2015, which authorized and made permanent, under specified circumstances, the SBA's recent practice of waiving the SBAExpress loan program's one time, up-front loan guarantee fee for veterans (and their spouse).
Descriptors: Veterans, Entrepreneurship, Small Businesses, Employment Experience, Labor Force, Employment Patterns, Employee Assistance Programs, Public Agencies, Transitional Programs, Federal Aid, Federal Programs
Congressional Research Service. Web site: https://crsreports.congress.gov/
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: Policymakers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service (CRS)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A