USATODAY.com - Legislators have critical eye on Red Cross

USATODAY.com - Legislators have critical eye on Red Cross: "Legislators have critical eye on Red Cross
By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON � The American Red Cross faces the toughest challenge of its century-old special relationship with Congress.
A congressional investigation of the charity is set to escalate this week: The Red Cross is due to respond Monday to questions from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. And two members of the House of Representatives, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Republican Jim McCrery of Louisiana, have called for reconsidering the Red Cross' official designation as the charity the government relies on first after national disasters.
Thompson and McCrery say that after Hurricane Katrina, the Red Cross did not respond quickly enough in low-income areas, did not reach remote Gulf Coast communities, could not manage its overwhelmed phone lines for storm victims, failed to cooperate with local organizations and was unclear in telling donors how their gifts would be spent. "