At Risk: Military Reservist & Veteran Small Business Reauthorization & Opportunity Act

Steve Robertson, Director. National Legislative Comm., American Legion: S 1784, the Military Reservist and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and Opportunity Act of 2007, is facing the threat of being dropped from HR 1585, the Defense Authorization Bill. S 1784 makes vast improvements to the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Military Reservist Economic Disaster Loan (MREIDL) program. The MREIDL program provides funding to businesses to meet necessary expenses that they could have made, if not for the deployment of a reservist who is one of their essential employees.

Reasons to Support S 1784

• S 1784 establishes a pre-application process so businesses can be prepared, in advance, to apply for an MREIDL and includes a provision allowing businesses up to 1 year, as opposed to 90 days, to apply.
• The measure includes a National Reservist Enterprise Transition and Sustainability Provision, which allows the SBA to award grants to entities that assist businesses with preparing and implementing a business strategy to cover the period of time that the owner is called-up on active duty through 6 months after that owner's date of return.
• The provisions of S 1784 would also allow small businesses owned and operated by veterans to extend their SBA program participation time limitations by the duration of their owner's deployment.
• These veteran small business provisions are critical to the livelihoods of our veteran small business owners.The American Legion strongly endorses the provisions as presented in S 1784 to be included in HR 1585. Please call the House Armed Services Committee Members and Conferees that are listed below to express our support for S 1784.

Capitol Switchboard: 1-877-851-6437, 1-800-828-0498, or 1-800-614-2803. Ask for the office you would like to speak to. You can also request that one office transfer you to the next office. Most staff members are glad to help.

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