Chemical Safety Board

Open email to Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Imhofe:

Dear Rep. Issa and Sen. Imhofe,
The September 29 issue of Chemical and Engineering News has an article on the Chemical Safety Board. The title of the article is "Unending Criticism; No let up likely in long-running series of investigations of the Chemical Safety Board"
I've been a member of the American Chemical Society for more than 50 years and during many of those years I have followed with interest the activities of the Chemical Safety Board. I have previously had the highest respect for their work, because it has in the past been professional. The Board has unpolitically investigated chemical accidents and made recommendations on improvements to save lives and reduce losses of equipment.
In reading the C&E News article, it becomes apparent that the professional activity of the CSB has fallen apart.
It is my understanding that the CSB was set up as a separate agency reporting only to Congress. Presumably a Congressional Committee of Congress oversees the Board, setting salaries and establishing responsibilities. This has apparently worked for a great number of years and the Board has been basically immune to the shenanigans of certain presidents, such as Obama, who has been juggling agency agendas, etc. contrary to the original intent and current desires of Congress. But, somehow the CSB has become politicized. This has been done by appointing the wrong people. When the CSB was operating professionally and efficiently, all of its investigating members knew their jobs, which was to investigate chemically related accidents, come to conclusions on what had gone wrong and made recommendations to both Congress and various other agencies within the federal government for improvements to alleviate repetition of such accidents. That took a professional view by each of the CSB members. Namely to do the job and not quibble about who was high on the pecking post within the organization or how any one or more members could obtain additional power by forcing other agencies of the federal government to do its bidding.
I strongly suggest you clean house on the CAB by removing opportunists, which may be the whole CSB, and appointing professional people who firstly have the right attitude and secondly have the experience and capability of doing an appropriate job.