Trump Moves to Eliminate Chemical Safety Board

The CSB was authorized by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and became operational in January 1998. According to the Senate legislative history, the board’s main role is to investigate chemical accidents, determine their causes, and help prevent similar incidents. Congress gave the CSB an independent mandate, specifying that no other agency or executive branch official may direct its activities.

(From Truthout) However, the Trump administration has asked Congress to eliminate it – the only independent federal agency that investigates major chemical accidents – while systemically rolling back environmental regulations, including rules designed to protect communities from toxic spills. New polling suggests a bipartisan majority of voters are increasingly worried about toxic chemicals and want stronger federal protection from air and water pollution, which can increase health care costs.

President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 federal budget would eliminate the Chemical Safety Board as part of an apparent effort to rid the federal government of civil servants who might resist the president’s ever-shifting political whims. Echoing lobbyists for polluting industries, the White House claims the safety board “duplicates” work done by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), producing “unprompted studies” and proposing “regulations” it has no authority to enforce.

Unlike the EPA, the Chemical Safety Board operates independently from the president’s cabinet and political appointees. With an annual budget of about $14 million, the board cannot enforce regulations, but its investigations into fires, spills, explosions, and other accidents result in recommendations for regulators and private companies to make chemical storage and processing safer for workers and surrounding communities.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also taken a sledgehammer to the EPA by firing staff, slashing budgets, and undermining independent scientists studying the effects of toxic pollution on public health. Under EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the agency is systematically weakening federal environmental protections, including rules finalized in 2024 that require industrial polluters to coordinate with local first responders and create risk-management plans for handling dangerous chemicals near residential areas. For example, the EPA is moving to scrap a rule that would have required industrial facilities to use safer (but potentially more expensive) chemicals and technology in some cases.