WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) today reintroduced the Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act to help disabled veterans’ small businesses thrive.

Kennedy and Ossoff have proposed their legislation as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress’s annual defense spending and policy bill.

“America owes a debt of gratitude to every veteran who sacrifices for our country. Our bill would do right by service-disabled veterans by making sure government agencies are giving their small businesses a fair shake,” said Kennedy.

“Service-disabled veterans have made huge sacrifices in our national defense. That's why Senator Kennedy and I are introducing this bipartisan bill to support small businesses run by service-disabled veterans in Georgia and nationwide,” said Ossoff.

Reps. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.) introduced the companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) currently offers a program to allocate certain contracts to service-disabled veterans’ small businesses. The Service-Disabled Veterans Opportunities in Small Business Act would: 

• Require the SBA to issue guidance to meet goals for extending contracts to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans more effectively.

• Provide training for federal agencies that fail to meet contracting goals.

• Require the SBA to issue a report to Congress detailing a list of each federal agency that failed to meet its contracting goals.

Full text of the bill is available here.

Full text of Kennedy and Ossoff’s amendment to the NDAA is available here.