| Veterans
News Flash 
Nicholson
Praises
SBA’s Patriot Express Loans
A New Loan Program
For The Military Community
WASHINGTON -- With nearly a quarter of newly discharged
veterans considering starting their own businesses,
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson praised
a new Small Business Administration venture to
make business ownership easier for all veterans.
The
Small Business Administration (SBA) has unveiled
a program called “Patriot Express” that
offers a wide variety of assistance to veterans
interested in setting up or expanding their own
small businesses.
“America’s veterans are a great resource
for the private sector,” Nicholson said. “I
commend Administrator Steve Preston of the Small
Business Administration for his initiative in helping
veterans transition back into the private sector.”
Assistance under the new SBA program for veterans
ranges from help writing a business plan and managing
a business, to obtaining financing and learning
how to export goods. Participants may also qualify
for loans between 2.25 percent and 4.75 percent
over the prime interest rate.
Patriot
Express is open to veterans, reservists
and National Guard members, current spouses of
eligible personnel, the surviving spouses of service
members who die on active duty, or spouses of veterans
who die from a service-connected disability.
Expanding
veterans’ eligibility to SBA’s
Patriot Express program was a key recommendation
of a presidential task force on the needs of returning
veterans that Nicholson chaired. Nicholson delivered
the panel’s report to the White House on
April 23.
More
information about the SBA program is available
at the Small Business Administration’s Patriot
Express website: http://www.sba.gov/patriotexpress
SOURCE:
US Department of Veterans Affair
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