[cowholio4]

One thing that gets overlooked commonly with the the Red Cross is that it is a congressional charter. [1]

According to the charter the purposes of the corporation are:

(1) to provide volunteer aid in time of war to the sick and wounded of the armed forces, in accordance with the spirit and conditions of: (A) the conference of Geneva of October, 1863; (B) the treaties of the Red Cross, or the treaties of Geneva, of August 22, 1864, July 27, 1929, and August 12, 1949, to which the United States of America has given its adhesion; and (C) any other treaty, convention, or protocol similar in purpose to which the United States of America has given or may give its adhesion;

(2) in carrying out the purposes described in clause (1) of this section, to perform all the duties devolved on a national society by each nation that has acceded to any of those treaties, conventions, or protocols; (3) to act in matters of voluntary relief and in accordance with the military authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States and the armed forces of the United States and to act in those matters between similar national societies of governments of other countries through the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Government, the people, and the armed forces of the United States

The problem is that sure we can donate to other organizations but the Red Cross still is in a way a representive of America. And if they are so bad at delivering aid to Haiti; I wonder how effective they are at their other duties. I wonder if congress can revoke their charter? Or force reform? But that seems like an almost impossible task.

[1] http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4...

[craftyguy]

Given their brand recognition status, any attempts by Congress to revoke their charter would be a career-ending move for the politicians involved.

[opportune]

It could happen, it just couldn't come out of the blue. Someone would probably need to pay for a nation-wide awareness campaign (the irony) about the evils of corrupt charities such as The Red Cross or Susan G Komen.

[mseebach]

There are many arrows in the quiver that an enterprising politician can use to hold an errant organization to account (it's very difficult to be against holding powerful organizations to account, regardless of the actual merits of the action). They could propose amending the charter, simply choke off funding or insisting that they submit to a thorough audit by some federal government office (for which read: do what we tell you to, or have all your dirty laundry aired on cable news).