CSB and the 119th Congress

As I noted last month, the new Trump Administration intends to disband the Chemical Safety Board by defunding its operation. Since the CSB is established in statute (§112(r)(6) of the Clean Air Act), the President cannot unilaterally disband the Board, it would require a change in law. So, what he has asked the Congress to do in the FY 2026 budget request is to stop funding the CSB. This is similar to what he attempted to do with the Board in 2017.

It does not look like the Republican 119^th Congress plans to help the President in this regards. Funding for the Chemical Safety Board is found each year in the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (IER) Appropriations Act. This year the two versions of that bill introduced (with links to respective Committee Report) are:

S 2431 (S Rept 119-46), and

HR 4754 (H Rept 119-215)

The table below shows the funding being proposed for the CSB in each bill along with the current year funding.

FY 2026	S 2431	HR 4754	Current
CSB Funding	$14,400,00	$8,235,000	$14,400,00

The cut in funding in HR 4754 does not appear to reflect any special animus on the part of the House Appropriations Committee, rather it looks like it is part and parcel of their attempt this year to drastically cut government spending.

There are no negative comments about the Board, nor specific recommendations about actions to be taken in either of the Committee Reports.

At this point it does not look like either bill will make it to the President’s desk before September 30^th. So we are likely to see a continuing resolution introduced to continue funding the government for some period of time (possibly thru the middle of December, but it is just too early to tell). Keeping with CR tradition, the funding level for the CSB would be expected to continue at $14 million, though a formulaic across the board cut of 1 to 2 percent would not be unexpected.

So, it looks like the CSB will continue to operate in FY 2026, and the Board is certainly acting like that is the case.