The Nation : Senator Warns SBA Head

Republican and Democratic senators angrily accused Charles L. Heatherly, acting administrator of the Small Business Administration, of trying to dismantle the agency despite a new law extending its life through 1988. Heatherly was grilled for almost 90 minutes by members of the Senate Small Business Committee. Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.), the panel’s chairman, declared: “I will not allow this Administration to achieve administratively what it was unable to achieve legislatively. In other words, SBA is not going to be dismantled on my watch.” Heatherly said, however: “I have not been asked by the President to shut down the SBA or dismantle it.” He said that his job was to “make sure all laws and regulations are fully implemented.”