House Oversight Committee Members Call on President Obama to Remove Chemical Safety Board Chairman and Top Staff

EXCERPTS

Specifically, 42 U.S.C § 7412(r)(6)(B) states that “[a]ny Member of the Board, including the Chairperson, may be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” 

For example, the Committee is concerned that Chairman Moure-Eraso and Mr. Horowitz committed malfeasance when they approved the search of an employee’s email without any specific reason other than to “examine a confidential personnel issue.” 

…it is clear that the CSB is in a state of turmoil. 

At the hearing on March4th, Chairman Moure-Eraso stated definitively that he consulted with his General Counsel, Mr. Loeb, before allowing the search of an employee’s email. However, Mr. Loeb claims never to have been consulted about the email search.  Mr. Loeb sent an email to Committee staff following the hearing that said, “I was never consulted, in writing, verbally or otherwise, on the decision to review the [employee] emails.”

 A 2014 survey by the Office of Personnel Management demonstrated inefficient performance by Chairman Moure-Eraso and his senior staff.

Documents and testimony obtained by the Committee show that CSB’s problems have been primarily driven by Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso, Managing Director Daniel Horowitz, and General Counsel Richard Loeb.