Congress gave the CSB a unique statutory mission and provided in law that no other agency or executive branch official may direct the activities of the board.

[8] Sutherland resigned with two years left in her five-year term after the Trump administration proposed shutting down the CSB as part of the 2019 United States federal budget which ultimately would not occur.

It is known for its highly detailed and technically oriented post mortem analyses of individual incidents, as well as its transparent public relations practices.

The latter include at length reconstructions of an incident, alongside root cause analysis and subsequent recommendations the board has made; unusually for a governmental agency, they are often attended by a video form safety report, with careful narration and high quality computer graphics.

Of the 8 investigations (as of December 2021[update]) concerning explosions and fires caused by combustible dust conducted by the USCSB, 5 of them had their final report released from 2004 to 2009.