HR 8469 Passed in House – FUY 2027 MilCon Spending

 This morning, after beginning consideration of HR 8469, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2027, yesterday, the House finished the amendment process and voted to approve the bill by a substantially bipartisan vote of 400 to 15. The opposition votes were all from liberal Democrats. 

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet crafted their version of the FY 2027 MilCon spending bill. This is important because the Senate typically substitutes the language from their version of the spending bill for the language passed in the House. With the bipartisan vote in the House, the Senate may be able to fore go the use of alternate language. There would still likely be Senate amendments to be processed, so the bill would have to go back to the House for reapproval. 

I seriously misread the level of Democratic opposition to this bill. Today’s vote was a throwback to a time when spending bills were generally crafted in such a manner that many members of the opposition party could vote for the bill. If the House Appropriations Committee similarly crafts even some of the remaining bills in this manner, we may actually see at least some of those bills sent to the President under regular order before the end of the fiscal year. 

This does not mean that the 119th has become a kumbaya congress, all touchy feely and loving their fellow congress critters, but it does potentially presage at least some bipartisan spending bills landing on the President’s desk before the new fiscal year starts on October 1st. 

Review - CSB Updated the Status of 6 Investigation Recommendations –

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) updated their Recent Recommendation Status Updates page, closing one recommendation with acceptable action, one with exceeds recommend actions, and one with acceptable alternative actions. These actions left 116 of 1035 recommendations open. Additionally, the CSB updated the open status of three recommendations. The CSB took all of these actions on May 13th, 2026. The previous update was published on March 16th, 2026. 

The three recently closed recommendations are: 

• Cuisine Solutions Ammonia Release - 2024-03-I-VA-R4 – Cuisine Solutions Inc., Sterling Site,  

• Intercontinental Terminal Company (ITC) Tank Fire - 2019-01-I-TX-R6 – American Petroleum Institute (API), and 

• Husky Energy Superior Refinery Explosion - 2018-02-I-WI-R15 – API. 

Updated Open Reaccommodations  

The three recommendation that were updated as opposed to closed were: 

• Cuisine Solutions Ammonia Release - 2024-03-I-VA-4 - Cuisine Solutions Inc., Sterling Site, 

• Cuisine Solutions Ammonia Release - 2024-03-I-VA-R6 - Cuisine Solutions Inc., Sterling Site, and 

• Husky Energy Superior Refinery Explosion and Fire - 2018-02-I-WI-R14 - API. 

For more information on the investigation responses, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/csb-updated-the-status-of-6-investigation - subscription required. 

Chemical Transportation Incidents – Week of 4-11-26

 Reporting Background 

See this post for explanation, with the most recent update here (removed from paywall). 

Data from PHMSA’s online database of transportation related chemical incidents that have been reported to the agency. 

Incidents Summary  

• Number of incidents – 510 (474 highway, 31 air, 4 rail, 1 water) 

• Serious incidents – 3 (3 Bulk release, 1 evacuation, 1 injury, 0 death, 0 major artery closed, 1 fire/explosion, 56 no release)  

• Largest container involved – 30,120-gal DOT 117R100W Railcar {Ethanol or Ethyl Alcohol or Ethanol Solutions or Ethyl Alcohol Solutions} Loose manway bolts and damaged gasket. 

• Largest amount spilled – 300-gal IBC {Paint Related Material Including Paint Thinning, Drying, Removing, or Reducing Compound} Truck rollover accident. 

• Total amount reported spilled in all incidents – 1949.8-gal 

NOTE: Links above are to Form 5800.1 for the described incidents. 

Most Interesting Chemical: Fluoroboric Acid: A colorless odorless poisonous liquid. Corrosive to metals and tissue. It is used in electroplating, metal cleaning, and making diazo salts. (Source: CameoChemicals.NOAA.gov).  

CSB Adds Catalyst Refiners Investigation – 5-14-26

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) added the Catalyst Refiners Chemical Release investigation to their Current Investigations website. The incident involved the April 22nd, 2026, release of hydrogen sulfide gas during decommissioning activities at the Nitro, WV site. Two employees were killed and five other injured. On April 23rd, 2026 the Board announced that they were opening the investigation. The Board now has nine open investigations. 

This delay between announcing the investigation and the listing of the open investigation is not unusual. Presumably, the Board does this to allow the team sufficient time to determine if the formal investigation is worthy of the investment of time and personnel. 

I would expect that withing the next couple of weeks, we will be seeing the publication of an investigation update that would provide basic information about the facility and process which resulted in those two deaths. A final report could take a year or more. 

PHMSA Sends Pipeline Repair NPRM to OMB

 Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on “Pipeline Safety: Repair Criteria for Hazardous Liquid and Gas Transmission Pipelines”. The advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for this action was published on May 21st, 2025. 

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking: 

“PHMSA plans a notice of proposed rulemaking that would modify the thresholds at which operators would be required to repair hazardous liquid pipelines, commonly referred to as anomaly repair criteria,” on pipelines located in high-consequence areas (HCA) and could-affect HCAs,” and develop new repair criteria for hazardous liquid pipelines in non-HCAs.  PHMSA is also examining changes to the repair criteria for gas transmission pipelines, including the anomaly thresholds for cracks, dents, and certain seam types.”