Washington, D.C. ? President Bush signed into law Friday a bill that overhauls the way the American Red Cross governs itself and streamlines its leadership in an effort to avoid the type of problems that beset its response to Hurricane Katrina.

The charity’s 50-member board of governors, widely criticized as unwieldy, will be trimmed to no more than 25 members by 2009 and no more than 20 members by 2012.

The board will focus solely on governance and long-term oversight, not on regular operational decisions. All new members will be elected by the board itself; in the past, eight were appointed by the U.S. president and often had spotty attendance records at board meetings.

The bill also creates a new position of ombudsman, who will have unfettered access to all Red Cross operations and will provide annual reports to Congress.

The reforms were proposed last year by independent experts appointed by the Red Cross, which operates under a congressional charter. The changes are intended to ease recurring clashes between board members and Red Cross management, and to address complaints that the organization was at times too bureaucratic and unaccountable.