SERV Act

The bill would add a new reporting requirement to the Small Business Act directing the SBA Administrator to submit an annual report alongside the agency's budget justification documents. That report would cover the composition and activities of the veterans interagency task force and lay out an outreach plan for veteran-focused programs such as Boots to Business, Veteran Business Outreach Centers, and the Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program.

Separately, the bill would direct the Comptroller General (the head of the Government Accountability Office) to deliver, within one year of enactment, a report to four congressional committees on small businesses owned by veterans, service-disabled veterans, Reservists, and their spouses. The GAO study would analyze credit sources, default rates, federal lending program availability, gaps in credit access, and how deployment affects credit history. No new funds are authorized to carry out either requirement.

The Small Business Administration and the Government Accountability Office would bear the primary reporting obligations. Veterans, service-disabled veterans, members of reserve components of the Armed Forces, and their spouses who own or seek to start small businesses are the subject population of the GAO study. Congressional committees on Veterans' Affairs and Small Business in both chambers would receive the reports.

If enacted, the SBA would be held accountable annually to Congress for how it runs and promotes its veteran entrepreneurship programs. The GAO credit study could surface data gaps, lending barriers, or the credit-score impact of deployment — information that legislators could then use to design or adjust federal lending programs for veteran-owned businesses.

The SBA Administrator would file the task-force report each year as part of the agency's regular budget-justification package to Congress, with no separate rulemaking required. For the GAO study, the Comptroller General would conduct the credit-access analysis and transmit it to four committees within one year of enactment. The bill imposes no CUTGO cost — it explicitly states no additional appropriations are authorized — so both requirements must be absorbed within existing agency resources.