§7555 Arms Initiative Loan Guarantee Program

Summary

The Secretary may run a loan guarantee program to encourage private companies to use eligible facilities under this chapter. The program can promise to repay loans made to a company that will partly or fully pay to start a commercial activity at an eligible facility. Guarantees can only be promised if money to cover their cost is provided in advance, as required by section 504 of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661c). The Secretary may let certain officials help run the program: the Administrator of the Small Business Administration and heads of appropriate USDA agencies, including the Administrators of the Farmers Home Administration and the Rural Development Administration. Those officials may take applications, guarantee loans, and perform other services. They may guarantee loans to companies of any size and should use their usual loan procedures when possible. The Secretary may transfer funds to those officials to run the program, and they may accept those funds. Maximum guarantees per year are $20,000,000 for any one borrower and $320,000,000 total.