A former high-ranking federal flagged an unusual budget request by an independent agency that investigates chemical disasters.
White House budget documents released Friday show the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board would shut down by October 2026 as “part of the Administration’s plans to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government,” reported the Washington Post.
"President Donald Trump repeatedly called for zeroing out the agency’s funding during his first term, only for Congress to maintain or increase its budget," the Post reported.
"This time, however, Trump is trying to seize greater control of independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power," the report added. "The Supreme Court last month refused to immediately reinstate a pair of independent regulators fired by the Trump administration, saying the president may have the authority to oust them.
Congress established the CSB through the Clean Air Act in 1990, and it operated last year on the relatively small budget of about $14 million, but the board asked for zero funding in its budget request to the White House for fiscal year 2026 because its work “duplicates substantial capabilities” of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“CSB generates unprompted studies of the chemical industry and recommends policies that they have no authority to create or enforce,” the board said in its request. “This function should reside within agencies that have authorities to issue regulations in accordance with applicable legal standards.”
The request, and especially the language used by the board, struck Jordan Barab, the former deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA under Barack Obama, as highly unusual.
“The so-called budget request basically said, ‘We don’t deserve to live; please kill us,’” Barab said. “That indicates to me that the request did not come from the CSB leadership itself, but was rather imposed on the CSB by the White House. … So much for being an ‘independent’ agency.”
The CSB is supposed the have five members who are appointed by the president and then Senate-confirmed, but the board currently has just thee members, all appointed by Joe Biden, and has had two open seats since February 2023, but eliminating it will likely face opposition from Congress.
“If Trump gets his way, this will mean more chemical disasters choking our communities with toxic fumes, upending lives, and threatening the health and property of those living and working close by,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon (D-OR), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee on chemical safety. “I will do everything I can to prevent this gutting of funds and will continue to push for stronger laws to prevent chemical disasters and keep our communities and workers safe.”
