WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has doubled the federal government's contracting goal for veteran-owned small businesses, raising the target for federal agencies from 5 percent to 10 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts in fiscal year 2027, and has separately loosened the down-payment rules for veterans who buy an existing business through its main lending program. The two moves, announced in Washington on Monday, November 9, opened National Veterans Small Business Week and together form the most direct federal push in years to move former service members into business ownership and federal supply chains.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
The new goal covers both veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, known as SDVOSBs. It applies to the goals the SBA sets for every federal agency for fiscal 2027, which began on October 1, 2026 and runs to September 30, 2027. The other agency goals were left unchanged: 5 percent prime and 5 percent subcontracting for small disadvantaged businesses, 5 percent and 5 percent for women-owned small businesses, and 3 percent and 3 percent for HUBZone firms in historically underused business zones.
What the SBA announced
"The Trump SBA is proud to establish historic federal contracting goals — doubling the 5% objective to 10% — for veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, who are among the most competent and critical contractors," SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in the agency's announcement. "Veteran entrepreneurs deliver unmatched products and services that bolster our Main Streets and our military readiness." Loeffler said small businesses make up 70 percent of the defense industrial base, and the agency framed the higher goal as a way to channel more federal buying toward veteran suppliers in that base.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
The SBA said the increase follows a strong year for veteran contracting. In fiscal 2025, federal agencies awarded $32.5 billion in prime contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned firms, exceeding the government-wide 5 percent goal then in force. The agency also said it approved more than 18,000 contracting certifications for veteran-owned small businesses in fiscal 2026, after clearing a backlog of more than 2,700 Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) applications. Certification matters because it is the credential a veteran-owned firm generally needs before an agency can count contracts toward the veteran goal.
The loan change: buying a business without draining savings
The second announcement changes how a veteran can put together the down payment on an acquisition. Under the SBA's 7(a) Loan Program — the agency's main loan-guarantee program — anyone buying an existing business must contribute equity equal to at least 10 percent of the total project cost. Until now, outside money such as a seller standby note, investor capital or another external equity contribution could supply no more than half of that 10 percent, so the buyer had to find the rest from personal resources. Beginning on Veterans Day, November 11, and continuing through fiscal 2027, an eligible veteran buyer may raise the entire 10 percent from permitted outside sources, the SBA said in release 26-117.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
"As we worked to modernize our lending programs, we saw a clear opportunity to both empower veteran entrepreneurs and to address the Silver Tsunami," Loeffler said. "By providing veteran buyers greater flexibility to meet the equity requirements, we are opening up more pathways to entrepreneurship for proven leaders and problem solvers — and our next generation of Main Street job creators." The agency listed three intended effects: full flexibility in structuring the equity, preservation of the buyer's personal savings for running the business after the purchase, and a faster route into ownership for veterans leaving service.
According to the SBA's Office of Advocacy, 51 percent of the owners of U.S. businesses with employees are aged 55 or older. As that generation retires, a large stock of established firms needs new owners. The SBA's argument is that veteran buyers — if the down payment stops being the bottleneck — are well placed to take those businesses over instead of watching them close.
A third initiative, and the week around it
A third announcement paired the SBA with VetsinTech, a veteran technology network the agency said has about 120,000 members in 29 chapters, on a 'Vets in Drones' program to train and finance veteran-led companies in the drone and dual-use aerospace sector, which the SBA valued at $10.75 billion, and tied the effort to its newly established Smaller War Plants Commission. National Veterans Small Business Week, now in its 13th year, runs November 9 to 13 under the theme "Honoring Veteran-Owned, American Made." Loeffler, who described herself as the daughter and granddaughter of veterans, put the number of veteran small-business owners in the United States at 1.8 million. The week's kickoff in Washington, co-sponsored with Syracuse University's D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, featured Vice President JD Vance, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Year-round, the SBA says it serves veterans through 51 Veterans Business Outreach Centers.
Background: how federal contracting goals work
Under the Small Business Act, the federal government sets annual contracting goals so that small firms — including veteran-owned, women-owned, disadvantaged and HUBZone businesses — get what the law calls the maximum practicable opportunity to sell to the government. A goal is a target for agencies, not a guarantee of a contract for any individual firm, and competitive bidding rules still apply. The statutory government-wide target is at least 23 percent of federal prime-contract dollars going to small businesses overall, a mark the SBA says the government has exceeded for eleven consecutive years. The SBA grades agencies each year in its Small Business Procurement Scorecard, which is how the new 10 percent veteran goal will be measured in practice.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
Why it matters, including for immigrant and diaspora veterans
For the roughly 1.8 million veteran-owned firms the SBA counts — a group that includes many immigrant veterans and the children of immigrants who served in the U.S. armed forces before starting businesses in trucking, logistics, construction, food and professional services — the practical changes are twofold. On the contracting side, agencies that previously aimed one dollar in twenty at veteran firms must now aim one in ten, which expands the pool of bids, subcontracts and supplier slots that veteran firms can compete for, particularly in defense supply chains. On the ownership side, a veteran who has found a retiring owner's business to buy no longer has to put up at least half of the 10 percent equity from personal savings during the Veterans Day-to-end-of-FY27 window, which can decide whether a purchase happens at all.
What happens next
The 7(a) equity flexibility takes effect on Veterans Day, November 11, 2026, and remains in place through fiscal 2027; veteran buyers apply through SBA-participating lenders, and the agency directs veteran entrepreneurs to sba.gov/veterans for program details. The 10 percent contracting goal applies across fiscal 2027, and the first public test of whether agencies are moving toward it will come with the SBA's annual procurement scorecard reporting after the fiscal year closes. The announcements drew no immediate published response from veterans' business groups in the reports available at publication time, and the goals themselves do not change any individual firm's eligibility — certification through VetCert remains the gateway for contracts to count toward the veteran target. Independent reporting of the package, including the contracting goal and the loan change, was also published Tuesday by NJToday News.
Source: NJToday News