Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act of 2025
The Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act of 2025 would create a comprehensive federal framework to reduce heat-related health risks. It establishes the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and an interagency NIHHIS Interagency Committee to coordinate federal actions on heat across planning, preparedness, response, and long-term resilience. The act tasks the system with expanding data collection, improving forecasts and warnings, supporting decision-making, and funding community-based resilience projects. It also directs a National Academies study to identify gaps in heat information and response, and creates a Community Heat Resilience Program to provide financial assistance to eligible entities—prioritizing environmental-justice and low-income communities—for projects such as cooling strategies, shade, building retrofits, and energy-security measures. The bill authorizes multi-year funding to NOAA for these activities and includes data-management and equity goals (e.g., open data, FAIR data practices, CARE principles). Overall, the bill aims to institutionalize a national, data-driven, and equity-focused approach to extreme heat by improving information systems, coordinating across agencies, funding local resilience efforts, and continually assessing policy and science needs through a congressionally mandated study and periodic plan updates.
Key Points
- 1Establishes the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) within NOAA and a National Integrated Heat Health Information System Interagency Committee to coordinate federal heat-risk planning, data, and response across timescales (days to decades).
- 2Creates a 5-year strategic planning requirement and an ongoing interagency governance structure with diverse federal partners (health, environment, energy, housing, transportation, emergency management, labor, etc.), including co-chairs and a formal reporting/briefing cycle to Congress.
- 3Builds the NIHHIS data and research backbone, including open, interoperable data management (FAIR and CARE principles), data archiving, a dedicated warning meteorologist role, and a research program to study climate, health, vulnerability, and effectiveness of risk-reduction actions.
- 4Requires a National Academies study on extreme heat information and response within 120 days of enactment (to be completed within 3 years) to identify gaps, propose policy/research/operational improvements, and develop standardized definitions for heat events and related terms.
- 5Establishes a Community Heat Resilience Program that provides financial assistance (grants, contracts, prizes, or cooperative agreements) to eligible entities (nonprofits, states, Tribes, local governments, workforce boards, academic institutions, and Centers of Excellence) for projects that reduce heat-health risks and improve resilience, with priority given to historically disadvantaged communities; requires at least 40% of funds be directed to communities with environmental justice concerns or low income.
- 6Authorizes multi-year funding for NIHHIS activities (NOAA), the study with the National Academies, and the Community Heat Resilience Program, with specific annual appropriation amounts through 2030.