A decision by the Bush Administration to suddenly close a Small Business Administration program dedicated to helping veterans has touched off an uproar among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

"The Bush administration has failed to come forward publicly to announce they recently decided to close the SBA's veterans office…," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the ranking member on the Senate small business committee.

The government is required to award 3 percent of all federal contracts to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, and the SBA Office of Veterans Business Development was created to ensure that happens. Meanwhile, the SBA's Advisory Committee for Veterans Business Affairs, another group dedicated to helping veterans who own small businesses, will lose its charter when it expires in September.