---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 7555"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "7555"
heading: "ARMS Initiative loan guarantee program"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/7555"
units:
  - "Subtitle B — Army"
  - "Part IV — Service, Supply, and Procurement"
  - "Chapter 764 — Armaments Industrial Base"
---

# §7555. ARMS Initiative loan guarantee program

- (a) **Program Authorized.—** Subject to [subsection (b)](#b), the [Secretary](/usc/10/7551.md?p=5) may carry out a loan guarantee program to encourage commercial firms to use [eligible facilities](/usc/10/7551.md?p=2) under this chapter. Under any such program, the [Secretary](/usc/10/7551.md?p=5) may guarantee the repayment of any loan made to a commercial firm to fund, in whole or in part, the establishment of a commercial activity to use an [eligible facility](/usc/10/7551.md?p=2) under this chapter.
- (b) **Advanced Budget Authority.—** Loan guarantees under this section may not be committed except to the extent that appropriations of budget authority to cover their costs are made in advance, as required by section 504 of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 ([2 U.S.C. 661c](/usc/2/661c.md)).
- (c) **Program Administration.—**
  - (1) The [Secretary](/usc/10/7551.md?p=5) may enter into an agreement with any of the officials named in [paragraph (2)](#c-2) under which that official may, for the purposes of this section—
    - (A) process applications for loan guarantees;
    - (B) guarantee repayment of loans; and
    - (C) provide any other services to the [Secretary](/usc/10/7551.md?p=5) to administer the loan guarantee program.
  - (2) The officials referred to in [paragraph (1)](#c-1) are as follows:
    - (A) The Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
    - (B) The head of any appropriate agency in the [Department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6) of Agriculture, including—
      - (i) the Administrator of the Farmers Home Administration; and
      - (ii) the Administrator of the Rural Development Administration.
  - (3) Each official authorized to do so under an agreement entered into under [paragraph (1)](#c-1) may guarantee loans under this section to commercial firms of any size, notwithstanding any limitations on the size of applicants imposed on other loan guarantee programs that the official administers.
  - (4) To the extent practicable, each official processing loan guarantee applications under this section pursuant to an agreement entered into under [paragraph (1)](#c-1) shall use the same processing procedures as the official uses for processing loan guarantee applications under other loan guarantee programs that the official administers.
- (d) **Loan Limits.—** The maximum amount of loan principal guaranteed during a fiscal year under this section may not exceed—
  - (1) $20,000,000, with respect to any single borrower; and
  - (2) $320,000,000 with respect to all borrowers.
- (e) **Transfer of Funds.—** The [Secretary](/usc/10/7551.md?p=5) may transfer to an official providing services under [subsection (c)](#c), and that official may accept, such funds as may be necessary to administer the loan guarantee program under this section.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 106–398, § 1 [[div. A], title III, § 344(a)(1)], Oct. 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 1654, 1654A–70, § 4555; renumbered § 7555, Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title VIII, § 808(d), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1839.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2018—Pub. L. 115–232 renumbered section 4555 of this title as this section.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 2018 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 115–232 effective Feb. 1, 2019, with provision for the coordination of amendments and special rule for certain redesignations, see section 800 of Pub. L. 115–232, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title.