The future of the Small Business Administration will be up for discussion on Thursday at a Senate subcommittee hearing, but the debate has already begun.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, is holding the hearing.

Last Tuesday, before the event had even been officially announced, the American Small Business League sent out a news release headlined "Oklahoma senator calls for hearing to abolish small-business programs."

"I think that small-business owners in Oklahoma should be outraged that one of their senators is trying to bring an end to programs that are so vital to the state's economy," Lloyd Chapman, the group's president, said in the release. "If the government ends small-business contracting programs, then $119 billion in awards currently set aside for small firms will go to large firms, which make up only 2 percent of U.S. employers."

But two days later, in a news release of his own, Mr. Coburn called the ASBL notice a "false and deliberate distortion."

He said the goal of the hearing is simply to see if the Small Business Administration can be run more effectively.

"I've never met a small-business owner who believes any aspect of the federal government is operating at peak efficiency and should be immune from examination," Mr. Coburn said.

"I believe the Senate has a responsibility to ensure that the government is operating efficiently so our economy can sustain a costly war on terror, hurricane recovery effort and expanding Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs."

Among the ASBL's complaints: Veronique de Rugy, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has been invited to speak at the hearings.

Ms. de Rugy recommends that the SBA be dismantled, arguing that small companies – a nebulous category to begin with – don't deserve any more protection than medium or large firms.

But if it's possible to bristle in a news release, Mr. Coburn did so when responding to Mr. Chapman's statement that the hearing is a step toward closing down the SBA.

"Small-business owners across America should be embarrassed by the ASBL's scare tactics," Mr. Coburn said.