On Thursday, the Senate took up the nominations for two appointees to be board members for the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The nominations of Stephen Owens and Sylvia Johnson were considered en bloc under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. The nominations were both confirmed with no debate and no vote.
Owns and Johnson were nominated along with Jenifer Sass by President Biden back in April. The three nominees appeared before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee on July 29th, 2021. The testimony from the three nominees can be found here (Owens), here (Sass) and here (Johnson). The Committee voted on recommending approval of the nominations on September 22nd, 2021. The Sass nomination was not approved (pg 18) on a tie vote. The nominations of Owens and Johnson were approved in a voice vote (pg 19) en bloc with four bills considered on the same day. It is not clear if/when the Senate leadership could bring up the Sass nomination. It would require a majority vote in the Senate to order the Committee to report the nomination without recommendation.
These two will bring the Board to three members (the Board is supposed to consist of five members). The CSB’s announcement of the confirmation notes that:
“In addition to voting on investigations and safety
products, another fundamental element of our process – advocacy – is a key role
performed by the Board. Each member, based on their experience, technical
background, and interest, selects one or two key advocacy efforts from our
Critical Drivers List (CDL) to present the CSB’s perspective to our industries,
communities, and regulating bodies. This dramatically improves the impact and
activity around chemical plant operations with a direct effect on worker,
community, and environmental safety.”
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