Government: Changing Small to Not At All

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President Reagan's past two budgets have recommended the abolition of the Small Business Administration. Since Congress has so far refused to go along, the Administration may now be trying to dismantle the $680 million-a-year agency from inside. A new Reagan appointee, Charles Heatherly, 43, became acting SBA administrator on April 1. In his first day on the job he fired half of the SBA's ten regional administrators in what has been called the April Fool's Day Massacre. Two other dismissals quickly followed. An archconservative, Heatherly wants to fill the vacancies with people who share the Administration's commitment to rid the SBA of inefficient programs and fold the rest into the Commerce Department.

Many members of Congress are strong defenders of the agency and are furious with the way it is being attacked. "Heatherly's actions were just unconscionable," says Representative Parren Mitchell, a Maryland Democrat who is chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Lowell Weicker, a Connecticut Republican and the head of a similar committee in the Senate, has called for a hearing with the acting SBA chief. But Heatherly remains undaunted. Says he facetiously: "If that was controversial, I can't wait for the reaction to some other things I have planned down the road."