Critics Rap SBA Budget Proposal Critics charge the Bush administration is shortchanging technical assistance and training programs in its proposed SBA budget for 2004. At a House Small Business Committee hearing on the budget, the committee’s ranking minority member, Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) said the administration would fund only 47 procurement center representatives, “leaving several procurement centers across the country unstaffed.” Procurement center representatives are supposed to help small firms win contracts. The number of representatives has been sharply reduced in recent years. The Association of Small Business Development Centers told the committee that the administra- tion’s proposed funding for those centers is inadequate. It said flat federal funding, plus cutbacks in state funding caused by the slow economy, will force some of the 900 centers to lay off counselors or close their doors.