For
Immediate Release
Tuesday,
May 21, 2019
Grassley, Thompson
Reintroduce American Red Cross Transparency Act
WASHINGTON
– U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi
today introduced legislation to give the congressional watchdog arm complete
access to American Red Cross records for oversight purposes. The bipartisan,
bicameral American Red Cross Transparency Act of 2019 responds to
concerns that the Red Cross tried to quash a review by the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) of its practices, successfully limiting the scope
of the review, and has failed to be as transparent as it should be.
“The
American people rely on the Red Cross to respond when tragedy strikes. It is
congressionally-chartered and is a federal instrumentality. It receives federal
tax dollars for some of its disaster responses, and it receives the financial
benefits of tax exemption and tax-deductible donations. For those reasons,
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,” Grassley said. “The Red Cross has shown
an unwillingness to answer questions in the past. This legislation strengthens
transparency to help make the Red Cross more accountable to the public.”
“The Red Cross has been a component of disaster response for
decades, but that does not put them above Congressional oversight. The public
should know how the Red Cross spends both taxpayer dollars and
the funds Americans generously donate. With Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and
Harvey and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, we have seen the Red Cross struggle to
fulfill its disaster response mission,” Thompson said. “As the demands
on our disaster response systems have intensified, and with the frequency and
intensity of natural disasters having increased, it is critical that the Red
Cross is able to fulfill its mission and that Congress and the American public
have a window of transparency into the organization. Our legislation will
ensure that the Red Cross’ past attempts to scuttle necessary oversight won’t
work again.”
The American Red Cross Transparency Act gives
the GAO complete access to the Red Cross’ records when needed to conduct
oversight. If the Red Cross refuses to comply, the legislation provides the GAO
with the authority to bring an action in court to force compliance.
More than a
decade ago, Congress gave the GAO the broad authority to “review [Red Cross’]
involvement in any Federal program or activity the Government carries out under
law.” Despite clear legislative intent, the Red Cross essentially
stonewalled GAO when it tried to carry out an investigation requested by
Thompson in September 2013. After two years of stall tactics, delays and a
request from the Red Cross’ president that Thompson cancel his GAO request and
conduct future oversight via cell phone, the GAO analyzed information the Red
Cross begrudgingly made available to complete its investigation. Grassley
explored the GAO access problem as part of his inquiry of problems with the Red
Cross’ Haiti earthquake response. He sent the results as a memo to his
fellow committee members on both the Judiciary and Finance committees in 2016.
The legislation is available here.
The legislation is available here.
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