SmallBusinessNewz

Several business resource centers for veterans around the United States are being shut down due to the lack of federal funding.

This may come as a bit of a surprise to some considering that only a couple of weeks ago, a bill was signed into law with the sole intent of giving aid to veterans and reservists in small business.

Well, this is a clear example of why this law needed to come into existence.

Centers in Flint, Michigan, St. Louis, and Lawrence, Massachusetts have all fallen victim to these circumstances, causing veteran-run businesses to lay off workers and struggle for survival.

"I had to lay off my staff of three, and, if I don't get some funds, I won't be able to pay the rent this month," Louis J. Celli, president of the Lawrence center and a retired Army master sergeant, told the Boston Globe.

Senators John Kerry and Olympia J. Snowe who spearheaded the law to aid veterans announced that an investigation into the National Veterans Business Development Corporation (Veterans Corporation) is already in progress. The investigation has apparently been underway since December.

Kerry and Snowe issued a joint statement:

"We are determined to continue the fight for economic opportunity for veterans who have made tremendous sacrifices for our country...

Congress created the Veterans Corporation nine years ago to establish and maintain veterans business resource centers that would help our veterans start or expand businesses. The closing of the center in St. Louis underscores our deep concern that the Veterans Corporation has abandoned their mission. We have been pressing the Veterans Corporation to fund veterans business resource centers since September. As the leaders of the Committee with jurisdiction over the Veterans Corporation, we began collecting information in December and will announce the results of our investigation later this year."

Letters from the Senators to the Veterans Corporation can be found here.

Do you think the situation is being handled properly?