Capitol Hill Critics of Red Cross Renew Transparency Push

One of the Senate’s most persistent critics of the American Red Cross is making a renewed push to expand transparency at the organization.

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa has accused the charity of refusing to fully cooperate with inquiries from the Government Accountability Office about its disaster-response work.

Senator Grassley and Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi announced Thursday they were reintroducing a bill that would clarify and expand GAO access to the Red Cross’s records to conduct oversight. Last year’s bill stalled in the Senate, and it’s unclear whether there will be more of an appetite this year to take on the charity giant, which gets federal funds to assist in disaster relief.

The American Red Cross has a congressional charter that grants the head of the GAO authority to “review the corporation’s involvement in any federal program or activity the government carries out under law.”

Mr. Grassley has accused the Red Cross of trying to thwart an audit by narrowly defining which of its records are subject to government oversight.

“Congress has a responsibility to make sure the Red Cross answers questions asked on the public’s behalf and is operating up to the standards required of it during national disasters,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “The Red Cross has shown an unwillingness at times to answer questions.”

Red Cross spokeswoman Elizabeth Penniman said in an email that the Red Cross gets high marks from watchdogs for transparency and cooperates with Congress.

“The American Red Cross will continue to strongly oppose this legislation, as it is overly burdensome and would cause us to divert precious resources from serving people in need,” she said.

Ms. Penniman added that the Red Cross gets less than 1 percent of its disaster funding from the federal government.