[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2675 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2675
To reduce the health risks of heat by establishing the National
Integrated Heat Health Information System within the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and the National Integrated Heat Health
Information System Interagency Committee to improve extreme heat
preparedness, planning, and response, requiring a study, and
establishing financial assistance programs to address heat effects, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 1, 2025
Mr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Heinrich, Mr.
Blumenthal, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Wyden, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Booker, and Mr.
Sanders) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To reduce the health risks of heat by establishing the National
Integrated Heat Health Information System within the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and the National Integrated Heat Health
Information System Interagency Committee to improve extreme heat
preparedness, planning, and response, requiring a study, and
establishing financial assistance programs to address heat effects, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Preventing Health Emergencies And
Temperature-related Illness and Deaths Act of 2025'' or the
``Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Community with environmental justice concerns.--The
term ``community with environmental justice concerns'' means a
community with significant representation of communities of
color, low-income communities, or Tribal and indigenous
communities, that experiences, or is at risk of experiencing,
higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects as
compared to other communities.
(2) Extreme heat.--The term ``extreme heat'' means heat
that substantially exceeds local climatological norms in terms
of any combination of the following:
(A) Duration.
(B) Intensity.
(C) Season length.
(D) Frequency.
(3) Heat.--The term ``heat'' means any combination of the
atmospheric parameters associated with modulating human
thermoregulation, such as air temperature, humidity, solar
exposure, and wind speed.
(4) Heat event.--The term ``heat event'' means an
occurrence of extreme heat of 2 days or more that may have
heat-health implications.
(5) Heat-health.--The term ``heat-health'' means health
effects to humans from heat, during or outside of heat events,
including from vulnerability and exposure, or the risk of such
effects.
(6) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian Tribe'' has the
meaning given that term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
(7) Native hawaiian organization.--The term ``Native
Hawaiian organization'' has the meaning given that term in
section 6207 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7517).
(8) Planning.--The term ``planning'' means activities
performed across timescales (including days, weeks, months,
years, and decades) with scenario-based, probabilistic or
deterministic information to identify and take actions to
proactively mitigate heat-health risks from increased
frequency, duration, and intensity of heat waves and increased
ambient temperature.
(9) Preparedness.--The term ``preparedness'' means
activities performed across timescales (including days, weeks,
months, years, and decades) with decision support tools to
manage risk in advance of a heat event and increased ambient
temperature.
(10) Response.--The term ``response'' means activities
performed during and after a heat event to address heat-health
and other impacts and assess improvements to planning and
preparedness activities.
(11) Urban heat island.--The term ``urban heat island''
means the phenomenon observed in urbanized areas in which heat
is more extreme than in the surrounding exurban areas and heat
is heterogeneously distributed within urbanized areas, due to
factors including--
(A) low albedo and impervious surfaces;
(B) low vegetation coverage; and
(C) waste heat produced in urban areas.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Extreme heat events have been the leading cause of
weather-related death in the United States over the last 30
years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the National Weather Service.
(2) The fourth National Climate Assessment, mandated by the
Global Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2921 et seq.),
finds that during the next few decades, annual average
temperature over the contiguous United States is projected to
increase by a further 2.2F relative to current temperatures,
regardless of future scenarios. The National Climate Assessment
projects that the frequency and intensity of extreme heat
events will increase in the future as global temperature
increases.
(3) Exposure to extreme heat can cause acute heat-related
illnesses, such as heat stroke, which already result in more
than 65,000 emergency room visits each year and exacerbate
respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses.
(4) Heat poses the greatest health risks for adults older
than 65 years of age, pregnant people, young children, low-
income communities, urban communities, communities with low air
conditioning prevalence, socially isolated individuals, people
with mental or physical disabilities, people with underlying
medical conditions, agricultural or other outdoor workers,
workers without sufficient access to cooling, athletes,
incarcerated individuals, people experiencing homelessness, and
military personnel.
(5) Extreme heat is significantly associated with serious
adverse pregnancy outcomes across the United States. Those
adverse pregnancy outcomes disproportionately impact Black
mothers.
(6) Heat exposure is an issue of environmental justice, as
people living in low-income communities, communities of color,
and Tribal nations face a number of interacting factors that
render them more vulnerable to extreme heat.
(7) The impacts of heat on human health are more severe in
urban areas where land surface properties create an urban heat
island, particularly in neighborhoods with limited availability
of or access to green spaces, shade, and tree cover, due to
higher density of building structures and more vehicular
traffic.
(8) Limited availability of tree cover and higher
temperatures are correlated with low-income neighborhoods in
urban areas. In Richmond, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and
Washington, DC, researchers found that risk of exposure to
extreme heat is disproportionately distributed to communities
of color in patterns associated with segregation and redlining.
(9) Researchers have found that few communities in the
United States have sufficient climate and health information,
guidance, and resources for heat planning, preparedness, and
response.
(10) The risks associated with extreme heat have complex
interactions and impacts, and the management of those risks
requires a transdisciplinary approach.
(11) Regions, communities, and populations that face the
greatest health consequences of extreme heat often may
experience the lowest heat risk perceptions, have limited
incentives, or have access to the fewest resources for
responding to extreme heat, and as such, may be less likely to
take precautions.
(12) Research on the impacts of extreme heat on human
health and the effectiveness of solutions under varying
climate, social, and other contexts is stymied by a lack of
access to reliable, timely health observations and surveillance
due to proprietary data rights, expense, privacy and security
concerns, inconsistent reporting of health outcomes and
contributory factors, poor data integration and
interoperability, few incentives and little systematic
coordination to address those problems, and a lack of adequate
climate observation, modeling, and assessment in rural, urban,
indoor, and occupational settings.
(13) Integrated climate and health research and
information, when developed in a collaborative,
transdisciplinary manner, can inform long- and medium-range
scenario-based planning and decision making to protect
communities with environmental justice concerns and other
populations from extreme heat, reduce exposure to extreme heat,
and address factors that increase vulnerability.
(14) The Federal Government has developed, and should
maintain, preserve, or reinstate, various science-informed
heat-health tools for communities with environmental justice
concerns, workers, employers, and the public to understand heat
risk and resources, including the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Heat and Health Tracker, the Office of Climate
Change and Health Equity Climate and Health Outlook, the
National Weather Service HeatRisk portal, the National
Emergency Medical Services Information System Heat-related
Emergency Management Service Activation Surveillance Dashboard,
and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Extreme
Heat website.
(15) Increased heat can have cascading and compounding
impacts across and among sectors including energy, food supply
and quality, transportation, housing, infrastructure, hospital
and healthcare delivery, and education, all of which affect
health and well-being.
(16) Heat action plans and early warning systems can reduce
heat-related morbidity and mortality by clearly identifying
roles and responsibilities as well as evidence-based actions
and thresholds to enhance preparedness, and by promoting
behavior changes and actions taken by local governments,
communities, and individuals through awareness and increased
risk perception among those most vulnerable to the health
impacts of heat.
SEC. 4. NATIONAL INTEGRATED HEAT HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM INTERAGENCY
COMMITTEE.
(a) Establishment of Committee.--There is established within the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration an interagency
committee, to be known as the ``National Integrated Heat Health
Information System Interagency Committee'' (in this section referred to
as the ``Committee'').
(b) Purpose.--The Committee shall coordinate, plan, and direct
agencies represented on the Committee to execute, as appropriate,
activities across such agencies to ensure a united Federal approach to
reducing health risks from heat across timescales (including days,
weeks, months, years, and decades).
(c) Membership.--
(1) In general.--In order to carry out and achieve the
purpose described in subsection (b), the Committee shall
include the following:
(A) The Director of the National Integrated Heat
Health Information System.
(B) Not fewer than 1 representative from each of
the following:
(i) From the Department of Commerce, the
following:
(I) From the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the
following:
(aa) The National Weather
Service.
(bb) The Office of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Research.
(cc) The National
Environmental Satellite, Data,
and Information Service.
(II) The National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
(III) The Bureau of the Census.
(ii) From the Department of Health and
Human Services, the following:
(I) The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, including the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health.
(II) The Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Health and Human Services
for Preparedness and Response.
(III) The Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration.
(IV) The National Institutes of
Health.
(V) The Indian Health Service.
(VI) The Administration for
Children and Families.
(VII) The Administration for
Community Living.
(iii) From the Department of the Interior,
the following:
(I) The Bureau of Indian Affairs.
(II) The Bureau of Land Management.
(III) The National Park Service.
(IV) The Office of Hawaiian
Relations.
(iv) From the Environmental Protection
Agency, the following:
(I) The Office of Environmental
Justice and External Civil Rights.
(II) The Office of Air and
Radiation, if the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency
determines appropriate.
(III) The Office of Research and
Development, if the Administrator
determines appropriate.
(IV) The Office of International
and Tribal Affairs.
(v) The Department of Homeland Security,
including the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
(vi) The Department of Defense.
(vii) The Department of Agriculture,
including the United States Forest Service.
(viii) The Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
(ix) The Department of Transportation.
(x) The Department of Energy.
(xi) The Department of Labor, including the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
(xii) The Department of Veterans Affairs.
(xiii) The Department of Education.
(xiv) The Department of State.
(xv) The Small Business Administration.
(xvi) Such other Federal agencies as the
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and
Atmosphere considers appropriate.
(2) Selection of representatives.--The head of an agency
specified in paragraph (1)(B) shall, in appointing
representatives of the agency to the Committee, select
representatives who have expertise in areas relevant to the
responsibilities of the Committee, such as weather and climate
prediction, health impacts, environmental justice, urban
planning, behavioral science, public health hazard preparedness
and response, or mental health services.
(3) Co-chairs.--
(A) In general.--The members of the Committee shall
select 3 individuals from among such members to serve
as co-chairs of the Committee, subject to the approval
of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and
Atmosphere.
(B) Selection.--
(i) Initial selection.--Of the co-chairs
first selected, one co-chair shall be from each
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Department of Health and
Human Services, and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
(ii) Subsequent selection.--Subsequent co-
chairs shall be selected from among the members
of the Committee, except the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration shall have the
opportunity to maintain a co-chair position.
(C) Terms.--Each co-chair shall serve for a term of
not more than 5 years, except the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration shall have the opportunity
to maintain a co-chair position.
(D) Representation of national oceanic and
atmospheric administration.--If determined appropriate
by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and
Atmosphere, 1 co-chair of the Committee shall be a
representative from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
(E) Responsibilities of co-chairs.--The co-chairs
of the Committee shall work with th