President Bush has signed legislation aimed at expanding business opportunities for veterans and helping military reservists keep their businesses alive while they are on active duty.

The bill would allow self-employed reservists to apply for SBA loans before they are deployed. It would increase to $2 million the maximum amount of loans available to business owners who suffer economic losses while on active duty, and extend the deadline for applying for those loans. SBA would also be authorized to make loans of up to $50,000 for reservists without requiring collateral.

The legislation also includes measures designed to help veterans start new businesses.

The Military Reservist and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and Opportunity Act was sponsored by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-PA, and Senators John Kerry, D-MA, and Olympia Snowe, R-ME.

California defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-CA. Federal prosecutors described Wilkes as a “war profiteer” and asked the judge for a 25-year sentence, the Washington Post reported.

Wilkes, who headed ADCS Inc., was convicted in San Diego federal court last year of 13 felonies, including bribery, conspiracy and fraud. Cunningham has pleaded guilty.

Information security remains a serious problem for most federal agencies, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“Significant weaknesses continue to threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical information and information systems used to support the operations, assets and personnel of federal agencies,” GAO said.

The number of security incidents reported by agencies to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) more than tripled from 2005 to 2007.

Despite progress, 20 of 24 major agencies reported that inadequate information security controls were either a significant deficiency or a material weakness in 2007.

President Bush has nominated Carol Dillon Kissal to serve as SBA inspector general. She currently serves as a deputy director for the District of Columbia Department of Transportation. She previously served as the corporate treasurer for AMTRAK and was an IBM executive.