CSB nominee Katherine Lemos sails through confirmation hearing

Katherine A. Lemos, nominated to chair the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, faced few questions during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Sept. 11. At the hearing, committee members of both parties supported Lemos and the CSB, which investigates chemically related industrial accidents. Although President Donald J. Trump has twice tried to eliminate the CSB, Congress has continued to fund the agency. The CSB currently has only three members of its five-member board, and the terms of all those members will expire by the middle of next year. Lemos holds a PhD in social psychology and is a longtime pilot and certified flight instructor. She has previously served in the Federal Aviation Administration as a regulator and the National Transportation Safety Board as an accident investigator. She is currently the director of programs for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector. Her specialization, she said at the hearing, has been in system safety, accident investigation, and human factors. Like the previously appointed CSB chair, Lemos has no experience in chemical manufacturing or refinery operations. It is unclear when the Senate committee may vote on her nomination.