By Elizabeth Schwinn

Washington

Members of a key House committee today suggested that all charities should be required by law to tell donors how much of their contribution would be spent on programs related to the group’s mission.

The suggestion came after lawmakers grilled officials of a veterans charity that spends just 25 percent of the money it raises on programs.

Said Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, “We ought to shine a finer light on charities, all of them.” He added: “Any charity ought to use a majority of its funds to benefit the purpose of that charity.”

Roger Chapin — whose charity, Help Hospitalized Veterans, in Winchester, Calif., was a subject of the hearing — objected to Mr. Waxman’s proposal, saying donors have unrealistic expectations about the costs involved in direct-mail fund raising. “If we disclose, we’d all be out of business,” he said.

Mr. Waxman disagreed. People understand there are costs to running a charity, he said. But “if you had to disclose,” he told Mr. Chapin, “there would be market forces, there would pressure on you to lower your costs.”

The comments capped a three-and-a-half hour hearing in which Mr. Chapin, two direct-mail firms with which he does business, and a charity regulator from California took questions from more than a dozen irate lawmakers. The lawmakers said Mr. Chapin’s organization spent too much in salaries and other payments for its officials and the for-profit companies it worked with while doing little to help the people the charity was supposed to support.

Mr. Chapin has defended his charity’s operations, saying it provides much-needed assistance to veterans.