Congress Scrutinizes Charities' Response After Katrina

By Ian Wilhelm

Members of Congress on Tuesday called on nonprofit groups to better coordinate their efforts in the wake of what many consider to be a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina.

While charities provided "critically important assistance" during the emergency, they could have worked together to make sure more poor people, disabled people, and other minorities received aid, said Rep. Jim Ramstad, a Republican from Minnesota. He spoke at a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, which he arranged to examine the nonprofit response to Katrina.

Mr. Ramstad, who chairs the subcommittee, said he was discouraged that efforts to coordinate the work of disaster groups have not improved since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other charities were criticized for a failing to pull together.

"Four years ago, this subcommittee discussed the problem of coordination among charities responding to the September 11 attacks," he said. "Hurricane Katrina has shown that much work still remains."

After the 2001 attacks, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other large disaster-relief charities established the Coordinated Assistance Network, a computer database designed to track how much aid disaster survivors have received.

The database is being used to help victims of Katrina, but Cynthia M. Fagnoni, an investigator in the Government Accountability Office -- a Congressional research and auditing unit -- said some charity officials question its effectiveness. The government agency next year will release a report on the nonprofit response to Katrina, including recommendations on how to improve coordination, Ms. Fagnoni said.

During the hearing, charity officials and lawmakers made their own recommendations on how to improve disaster relief and focused on changing the National Response Plan, the blueprint for the federal government's response to an emergency.

The Salvation Army, the second largest provider of disaster services during the hurricane (after the Red Cross), asked lawmakers to include it in the federal plan.

"Despite our sizable footprint, established role in responding to disaster, and history of collaborating with other organizations, the Salvation Army is not mentioned in the National Response Plan," said Major Tom Hawks, the group's public affairs secretary. He said because the charity is not part of the national plan, it often fails to receive information at the state and local level. "This is an untenable situation," he said.

Rep. Jim McCrery, a Republican from Louisiana, supported the move to allow more nonprofit groups to be included in the plan. He said an "umbrella group" of charities should replace the Red Cross, which the plan identifies as the primary provider of emergency services.

Despite ample warnings of how Katrina could damage New Orleans and surrounding areas, Mr. McCrery said the Red Cross was ill-prepared for the hurricane.

But Joesph C. Becker, senior vice president of response and preparedness for the American Red Cross, whose national headquarters is based in Washington, defended the group's efforts.

"The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was worse than any worst-case scenario the Red Cross, or the federal government, ever prepared for," he told the panel. "How can the Red Cross, or any organization, respond successfully on a scale that is at least 20 times greater than it ever faced before?"

Testimony from the hearing will soon be available online at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=455.