"Trump Wants to Kill a Chemical Safety Board. Chemical Makers Object."

"The White House is planning to eliminate the board, a small agency that investigates chemical disasters to understand what went wrong." 

"In January 2021, after a nitrogen leak at a poultry plant in Georgia killed 6 workers and injured scores more, federal investigators arrived at the scene.

The team, from a small federal agency called the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, traced the fatal leak to a freezer part that had been bent out of shape. A series of recommendations to improve safety followed.

Now, the White House is planning to eliminate the agency, allocating $0 for its budget starting in 2026. Even industry groups are opposed.

The board has a reputation for working collaboratively with companies, said Shakeel H. Kadri, executive director of the Center for Chemical Process Safety, an industry-funded organization that works on safety issues, adding that it also doesn’t penalize companies or issue new regulations."

Hiroko Tabuchi reports for the New York Times July 8, 2025.

Source: NYTimes, 07/09/2025