Washington — Congress has passed a set of appropriations bills that includes $14 million for the Chemical Safety Board.
The Senate voted in favor of H.R. 6938 with an 82-15 vote Jan. 15, a week after the House approved the bill in a 397-28 vote.
The funding for CSB would run through Sept. 30. The federal government’s fiscal year 2026 began Oct. 1 and started with a 43-day shutdown.
The Senate initially budgeted $14.4 million for the agency, while the House allocated $8.2 million.
Under President Donald Trump, the White House has sought to eliminate the small federal agency in five consecutive budget requests dating to 2017. Congress hasn’t granted those requests in any appropriations bill.
CSB Chair Steve Owens defended the agency in a June video, stating that CSB “more than pays for itself in costs saved by preventing serious chemical incidents.” The video also details CSB’s accomplishments since it began in 1998, including issuing more than 1,000 safety recommendations.
Owens and Sylvia Johnson are CSB’s only board members, leaving the agency without a quorum. Catherine J.K. Sandoval resigned in July and returned to Santa Clara University as a law professor.
The agency operated without a quorum of the five-member board for around a year until Sandoval began her term in February 2023. Owens’ and Johnson’s terms are set to expire in February 2027.
“We are currently less than 50 employees at the CSB,” Owens said in December, “and every one of them … [is] running as fast as they can on multiple fronts to produce terrific work that has very significant impacts for chemical safety.”
