February 25, 1999 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The 2000 Presidential race has brought attention to an effort by the Salvation Army to change a federal law that gives the American Red Cross control over providing grief counseling to people involved in airplane disasters.
The Salvation Army, like the Red Cross, has long provided disaster relief after airplane crashes — including food, other emergency supplies, and counseling to families of crash victims. It says it is worried that a provision in a 1996 law that spells out how to deal with aviation disasters could impede its efforts to help victims.
The Salvation Army has been working to get the law changed for more than a year, but it recently stepped up its lobbying by sending letters to key lawmakers.
The effort has attracted attention because some observers have suggested that the charities have gotten caught up in a Presidential campaign squabble between Republicans Elizabeth Hanford Dole and Dan Quayle. Mrs. Dole recently left her post as president of the Red Cross and is considering a Presidential bid. Marilyn Quayle, wife of the former Vice-President — who is also considering a run for the Presidency — chairs a Salvation Army committee on disaster relief.
Both charities have dismissed speculation that the issue — or the timing of the Salvation Army’s renewed lobbying efforts — had any political undertones.
Red Cross officials said they did not plan to block a review of the legislation. But, they added, the law designated the Red Cross to be in charge of grief counseling because it has a group of licensed mental-health counselors ready to respond to any disaster.
The legislation instructed the National Transportation Safety Board to outline the responsibilities and roles of organizations that provide relief after a crash.
The safety board gave the Red Cross the role of coordinating mental-health services for crash survivors and people whose relatives have died in a crash.
Salvation Army officials say that while the phrasing that is now in federal law doesn’t specifically ban other disaster-relief groups from offering psychological assistance, it could diminish their role and make it hard for relief workers other than those connected to the Red Cross to do their jobs.
Red Cross officials said they had no plans to prevent relief workers from providing assistance.
