The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 4420, the Cool Corridors Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the Healthy Streets program through 2030 and seeks to increase green and other shade infrastructure in high-heat areas.  

Science has shown that increasing sources of shade, including tree canopy and other shade infrastructure, can cool surrounding areas as much as 10 degrees, protecting people and critical infrastructure. The Cool Corridors Act of 2025 would create a unique and reliable funding source for communities to build out their shade infrastructure.

“Extreme heat is a serious threat to public health and critical infrastructure,” says Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager for Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists. “Increasing tree canopies and shade infrastructure is a key recommendation in FAS’ 2025 Heat Policy Agenda and we commend Reps Lawler and Strickland for taking action on this.”

‘Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation’ puts heat emergencies on the same footing as other natural disasters, reimagines how governments respond

Washington, D.C. – July 22, 2025 – Shattered heat records, heat domes, and prolonged heat waves cause thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in lost productivity, damages, and economic disruptions. In 2023 alone, at least 2,300 people died from extreme heat, and true mortality could be greater than 10,000 annually. Workplaces are seeing $100 billion in lost productivity each year. Increased wear and tear on aging roads, bridges, and rail is increasing maintenance costs, with road maintenance costs expected to balloon to $26 billion annually by 2040. Extreme heat also puts roughly two-thirds of the country at risk of a blackout.

Extreme heat events that were uncommon in many places are becoming routine and longer lasting – and communities across the United States remain highly vulnerable.

To help prepare, the Federation of American Scientists has drawn upon experts from Sunbelt states to identify decisive actions to save lives during extreme heat events and prepare for longer heat seasons. The Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation, released today, calls for local, state, territory, Tribal, and federal governments to collaborate with community organizations, private sector partners and research institutions.

“The cost of inaction is not merely economic; it is measured in preventable illness, deaths and diminished livelihoods,” the report authors say. “Governments can no longer afford to treat extreme heat as business as usual or a peripheral concern.”

The Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation focuses on five measures to protect people, their livelihoods, and their communities:

1. Establish leaders with responsibility and authority to address extreme heat. Leaders must coordinate actions across all relevant agencies and with non-governmental partners. 
   
2. Accurately assess extreme heat and its impacts in real time. Use the data to inform thresholds that trigger emergency response protocols, safeguards, and pathways to financial assistance.
   
3. Prepare for extreme heat as an acute emergency as well as a chronic risk. Local governments should consider developing heat-response plans and integrating extreme temperatures into their long-term capital planning and resilience planning.
   
4. When extreme heat thresholds are crossed, local, state, territory, Tribal and federal governments should activate response plans and consider emergency declarations. There should be a transparent and widely understood process for emergency responses to extreme heat that focus on protecting lives and livelihoods and safeguarding critical infrastructure.
   
5. Develop strategies to plan for and finance long-term extreme heat impact reduction. Subnational governments can incentivize or require risk-reduction measures like heat-smart building codes and land-use planning, and state, territory, Tribal and federal governments can dedicate funding to support local investments in long-term preparedness. 

Extreme heat in the Sunbelt region of the United States is a harbinger of what’s coming for the rest of the country. But the Sunbelt is also advancing solutions. In April 2025, representatives from states, cities, and regions across the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor from California to Florida, convened in Jacksonville, Florida for the Ten Across Sunbelt Cities Extreme Heat Exercise. Attendees worked to understand the available levers for government heat response, discussed their current efforts on extreme heat, and identified gaps that hinder both immediate response and long-term planning for future extreme heat events. 

Through an analysis of efforts to date in the Sunbelt, gaps in capabilities, and identified opportunities, and analysis of previous calls to action around extreme heat, the Federation of American Scientists developed the Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation. 

The report was produced with technical support from the Ten Across initiative associated with Arizona State University, and funding from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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About FAS

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) works to advance progress on a broad suite of contemporary issues where science, technology, and innovation policy can deliver transformative impact, and seeks to ensure that scientific and technical expertise have a seat at the policymaking table. Established in 1945 by scientists in response to the atomic bomb, FAS continues to bring scientific rigor and analysis to address national challenges. More information about FAS work at fas.org.

Extreme heat is a major occupational hazard with far-reaching impacts on the national economy as well as worker health and safety. Extreme heat costs an estimated $100 billion per year in lost productivity, and causes an average of at least 3,389 heat-related injuries and 33 heat-related fatalities annually – numbers that are likely vast undercounts. To protect workers, Congress must mandate a federal heat standard, retain federal workers with expertise in heat stress management strategies, and establish Centers of Excellence to support research, training, and sector-specific mitigation strategies. Through investments in infrastructure for heat safety, Congress can save lives, protect the economy, and enhance resilience nationwide.

Heat-Related Risks are Heightened in Many Work Environments

Extreme heat puts workers of all types at risk: OSHA has documented hospitalizations and heat-related deaths in close to 275 industries. Some work environments present extreme heat risk, particularly those involving high exposures to the outdoors and limited access to cooling. With roughly one in three U.S. employees regularly working outdoors, a large share of the workforce is at elevated risk during summer months. Indoor workers also face high exposure, especially in kitchens, warehouses, manufacturing plants, and other poorly ventilated environments because heat and humidity easily build up in enclosed spaces without adequate air flow and climate-control. 

Business and Economic Impacts of High Heat Exposure in the Workplace 

On top of the $100 billion in direct annual losses, high temperatures are also linked to increased healthcare costs for employers and workers’ compensation claims, with claim frequencies rising by up to 10% during temperature extremes. Some industries are more exposed than others; for example, agriculture, construction, and utility companies face twice the risk of incurring increased healthcare claims due to extreme weather and other environmental conditions. This growing number of claims increases companies’ experience modification rates, which insurers use as a key factor for calculating higher future premiums. Higher premiums translate to greater insurance and overall operating costs, which is especially burdensome for small and low-margin businesses. Despite all these risks, many employers continue to underestimate the financial burden of extreme heat and other weather-related health impacts. 

Many Military Personnel and Federal Workers Face Above-Average Risks of Heat-Related Illness

Military personnel, federal law enforcement officers, border patrol officers, wildland firefighters, federal transportation workers like railroad inspectors, and postal employees are all in positions that require long, labor-intensive hours outdoors, raising the risk for heat-related illness. In 2024, heat-related illnesses were among the top five most reported medical events among U.S. active duty service members. Without consistent standards in place to protect these workers from extreme heat, military and other federal operations will continue to be vulnerable to disruption and reduced workforce capacity.

Advancing Solutions: Establish a Strong Federal Heat Standard and Sector-Specific Centers of Excellence for Heat Workplace Safety

To begin to address heat-related injuries and illnesses in workplaces, OSHA in 2022 established the National Emphasis Program (NEP) on Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards, which remains in effect until April 2026. As of 2025, OSHA reports that this NEP has conducted nearly 7,000 inspections connected to heat risks, which lead to 60 heat citations and nearly 1,400 “hazard alert” letters being sent to employers.

However, in the absence of a federal mandate for effective heat safety practices, most workplaces rely on voluntary guidance that is not tailored to specific job conditions, backed by consistent data, or subject to enforcement. This puts both workers and businesses at risk. OSHA’s proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule would be a critical step forward to establishing common-sense baseline protections. According to the agency’s projections, compliance with this standard could prevent thousands of heat-related illnesses and deaths. The projected benefits from reduced fatalities, illness, and injury amount to $9.18 billion per year. Importantly, this action has broad public backing: 90% of American voters support the implementation of federal protections from extreme heat in the workplace. 

Congress should act swiftly to ensure OSHA finalizes and enforces a strong, evidence-based heat standard. To do this effectively, it is essential that funding for experts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is retained in the FY26 budget request, as these critical workers develop criteria for recommended standards on occupational heat stress. These experts have been impacted by reductions in force at NIOSH, and as of July 2025 have not been brought back by the agency.

Some employers have raised concerns about the technical and financial feasibility of the proposed rule. To address these concerns, Congress should pair regulation with practical support by creating federally funded, sector-specific Centers of Excellence (CoEs)for Heat Workplace Safety. These Centers would develop and implement evidence-based solutions tailored to different work environments, such as agriculture and construction. The CoE approach includes comprehensive data collection at worksites that form the basis of occupational safety and health protocols best practices and policies to enhance productivity, prevent injury and illness, and ensure a return on investment. Once strategies are developed, CoEs implement them, track their impact, and work with workers, employers, and cross-sector partners to ensure long-term success.

By leveraging advanced technology, predictive analytics, and continuously updated industry standards, CoEs can help modernize OSHA regulations and make them more aligned with current workplace realities that go beyond simple compliance or post-injury responses.  Federal agencies and other industries with sizable workforces that receive government contracts are key places to develop best practices, technologies, and public-private partnerships for these interventions, all while reducing fiscal risk to the federal government.  

Summer officially kicked off this past weekend with the onset of a sweltering heat wave. As we hit publish on this piece, tens of millions of Americans across the central and eastern United States are experiencing sweltering temperatures that make it dangerous to work, play, or just hang out outdoors.

The good news is that even when the mercury climbs, heat illness, injury, and death are preventable. The bad news is that over the past five months, the Trump administration has dismantled essential preventative capabilities.

At the beginning of this year, more than 70 organizations rallied around a common-sense Heat Policy Agenda to tackle this growing whole-of-nation crisis. Since then, we’ve seen some encouraging progress. The new Congressional Extreme Heat Caucus presents an avenue for bipartisan progress on securing resources and legislative wins. Recommendations from the Heat Policy Agenda have already been echoed in multiple introduced bills. Four states, California, Arizona, New Jersey, and New York, now have whole-of-government heat action plans, and there are several States with plans in development. More locally, mayors are banding together to identify heat preparedness, management, and resilience solutions. FAS highlighted examples of how leaders and communities across the country are beating the heat in a Congressional briefing just last week.

But these steps in the right direction are being forestalled by the Trump Administration’s leap backwards on heat. The Heat Policy Agenda emphasized the importance of a clear, sustained federal governance structure for heat, named authorities and dedicated resourcing for federal agencies responsible for extreme heat management, and funding and technical assistance to subnational governments to build their heat readiness. The Trump Administration has not only failed to advance these goals – it has taken actions that clearly work against them.

The result? It’s summer, America’s heating up, and we’re deeply unprepared.

The heat wave making headlines today is just the latest example of how extreme heat is a growing problem for all 50 states. In just the past month, the Pacific Northwest smashed early-summer temperature records, there were days when parts of Texas were the hottest places on Earth, and Alaska – yes, Alaska – issued its first-ever heat advisory. Extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined, and is exacerbating a mental-health crisis as well. By FAS’ estimates, extreme heat costs the nation more than $162 billion annually, costs that have made extreme heat a growing concern to private markets.

To build a common understanding of the state of federal heat infrastructure, we analyzed the status of heat-critical programs and agencies through public media, government reports, and conversations with stakeholders. All known impacts are confirmed via publicly available sources. We highlight five areas where federal capacity has been impacted:

• Leadership and governance infrastructure
• Key personnel and their expertise
• Data, forecasts, and information availability
• Funding sources and programs for preparedness, risk mitigation and resilience
• Progress towards heat policy goals

This work provides answers to many of the questions our team has been asked over the last few months about what heat work continues at the federal level. With this grounding, we close with some options and opportunities for subnational governments to consider heading into Summer 2025.

What is the Current State of Federal Capacity on Extreme Heat?

Loss of leadership and governance infrastructure

At the time of publication, all but one of the co-chairs for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System’s (NIHHIS) Interagency Working Group (IWG) have either taken an early retirement offer or have been impacted by reductions in force. The co-chairs represented NIHHIS, the National Weather Service (NWS), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The National Heat Strategy, a whole-of-government vision for heat governance crafted by 28 agencies through the NIHHIS IWG, was also taken offline. A set of agency-by-agency tasks for Strategy implementation (to build short-term readiness for upcoming heat seasons, as well as to strengthen long-term preparedness) was in development as of early 2025, but this work has stalled. There was also a goal to formalize NIHHIS via legislation, given that its existence is not mandated by law – relevant legislation has been introduced but its path forward is unclear. Staff remain at NIHHIS and are continuing the work to manage the heat.gov website, craft heat resources and information, and disseminate public communications like Heat Beat Newsletter and Heat Safety Week. Their positions could be eliminated if proposed budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are approved by Congress.

Staffing reductions and actualized or proposed changes to FEMA and HHS, the federal disaster management agencies implicated in addressing extreme heat, are likely to be consequential in relation to extreme heat this summer. Internal reports have found that FEMA is not ready for responding to even well-recognized disasters like hurricanes, increasing the risk for a mismanaged response to an unprecedented heat disaster. The loss of key leaders at FEMA has also put a pause to efforts to integrate extreme heat within agency functions, such as efforts to make extreme heat an eligible disaster. FEMA is also proposing changes that will make it more difficult to receive federal disaster assistance. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), HHS’ response arm, has been folded into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been refocused to focus solely on infectious diseases. There is still little public information for what this merger means for HHS’ implementation of the Public Health Service Act, which requires an all-hazards approach to public health emergency management. Prior to January 2025, HHS was determining how it could use the Public Health Emergency authority to respond to extreme heat.

Loss of key personnel and their expertise

Many key agencies involved in NIHHIS, and extreme heat management more broadly, have been impacted by reductions in force and early retirements, including NOAA, FEMA, HHS, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the Department of Energy (DOE). Some key agencies, like FEMA, have lost or will lose almost 2,000 staff. As more statutory responsibilities are put on fewer workers, efforts to advance “beyond scope” activities, like taking action on extreme heat, will likely be on the back burner.

Downsizing at HHS has been acutely devastating to extreme heat work. In January, the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) was eliminated, putting a pause on HHS-wide coordination on extreme heat and the new Extreme Heat Working Group. In April, the entire staff of the Climate and Health program at CDC, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and all of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) working on extreme heat, received reduction in force notices. While it appears that staff are returning to the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, they have lost months of time that could have been spent on preparedness, tool development, and technical assistance to local and state public health departments. Sustained funding for extreme heat programs at HHS is under threat, the FY2026 budget for HHS formally eliminates the CDC’s Climate and Health Program, all NIOSH efforts on extreme heat, and LIHEAP.

Risks to data, forecasts, and information availability, though some key tools remain online

Staff reductions at NWS have compromised local forecasts and warnings, and some offices can no longer staff around-the-clock surveillance. Staff reductions have also compromised weather balloon launches, which collect key temperature data for making heat forecasts. Remaining staff at the NWS are handling an increased workload at one of the busiest times of the year for weather forecasting. Reductions in force, while now reversed, have impacted real-time heat-health surveillance at the CDC, where daily heat-related illness counts have been on pause since May 21, 2025 and the site is not currently being maintained as of the date of this publication.

Some tools remain online and available to use this summer, including NWS/CDC’s HeatRisk (a 7-day forecast of health-informed heat risks) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Heat-Related EMS Activation Surveillance Dashboard (which shows the number of heat-related EMS activations, time to patient, percent transported to medical facilities, and deaths). Most of the staff that built HeatRisk have been impacted by reductions in force. The return of staff to the CDC’s Climate and Health program is a bright spot, and could bode well for the tool’s ongoing operations and maintenance for Summer 2025.

Proposed cuts in the FY26 budget will continue to compromise heat forecasting and data. The budget proposes cutting budgets for upkeep of NOAA satellites crucial to tracking extreme weather events like extreme heat; cutting budgets for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s LandSat program, which is used widely by researchers and private sector companies to analyze surface temperatures and understand heat’s risks; and fully defunding the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, which funds local and state public health departments to collect heat-health illness and death data and federal staff to analyze it.

Rollbacks in key funding sources and programs for preparedness, risk mitigation and resilience

As of May 2025, both NIHHIS Centers of Excellence – the Center for Heat Resilient Communities and the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring – received stop work orders and total pauses in federal funding. These Centers were set to work with 26 communities across the country to either collect vital data on local heat patterns and potential risks or shape local governance to comprehensively address the threat of extreme heat. These communities represented a cross-cut of the United States, from urban to coastal to rural to agricultural to tribal. Both Center’s leadership plans to continue the work with the selected communities in a reduced capacity, and continue to work towards aspirational goals like a universal heat action plan. Future research, coordination, and technical assistance at NOAA on extreme heat is under fire with the proposed total elimination of NOAA Research in the FY26 budget.

At FEMA, a key source of funding for local heat resilience projects, the Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, has been cancelled. BRIC was the only FEMA Resilience grant that explicitly called out extreme heat in its Notice of Funding Opportunity, and funded $13 million in projects to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat. Many states have also faced difficulties in getting paid by FEMA for grants that support their emergency management divisions, and the FY26 budget proposes cuts to these grant programs. The cancellation of Americorps further reduces capacity for disaster response. FEMA is also dropping its support for improving building codes that mitigate disaster risk as well as removing requirements for subnational governments to plan for climate change. 

At HHS, a lack of staff at CDC has stalled payments from key programs to prepare communities for extreme heat, the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) grant program and the Public Health Preparedness and Response program. BRACE is critical federal funding for state and local climate and health offices. In states like North Carolina, the BRACE program funds live-saving efforts like heat-health alerts. Both of these programs are proposed to be totally eliminated in the FY26 budget. The Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) is also slated for elimination, despite being the sole source of federal funding for health care system readiness. HPP funds coalitions of health systems and public health departments, which have quickly responded to heat disasters like the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Domes and established comprehensive plans for future emergencies. The National Institutes of Health’s Climate and Health Initiative was eliminated and multiple grants paused in March 2025. Research on extreme weather and health may proceed, according to new agency guidelines, yet overall cuts to the NIH will impact capacity to fund new studies and new research avenues. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which funds research on environmental health, faces a 36% reduction in its budget, from $994 million to $646 million.

Access to cool spaces is key to preventing heat-illness and death. Yet cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and program eliminations across the federal government are preventing progress towards ensuring every American can afford their energy bills. At DOE, rollbacks in energy efficiency standards for cooling equipment and the ending of the EnergyStar program will impact the costs of cooling for consumers. Thankfully, DOE’s Home Energy Rebates survived the initial funding freezes and the funding has been deployed to states to support home upgrades like heat pumps, insulation, air sealing, and mechanical ventilation. At HUD, the Green and Resilient Retrofits Program has been paused as of March 2025, which was set to fund important upgrades to affordable housing units that would have decreased the costs of cooling for vulnerable residents. At EPA, widespread pauses and cancellations in Inflation Reduction Act programs have put projects to provide more affordable cooling solutions on pause. At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, all grantees for the Rural Energy for America Program, which funds projects that provide reliable and affordable energy in rural communities, have been asked to resubmit their grants to receive allocated funding. These delays put rural community members at risk of extreme heat this summer, where they face particular risks due to their unique health and sociodemographic vulnerabilities. Finally, while the remaining $400 million in LIHEAP funding was released for this year, it faces elimination in FY26 appropriations. If this money is lost, people will very likely die and utilities will not be able to cover the costs of unpaid bills and delay improvements to the grid infrastructure to increase reliability.

Uncertain progress towards heat policy goals

Momentum towards establishing a federal heat stress rule as quickly as possible has stalled. The regulatory process for the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings is proceeding, with hearings that began June 16 and are scheduled to continue until July 3. It remains to be seen how the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will proceed with the existing rule as written. OSHA’s National Emphasis Program (NEP) for Heat will continue until April 6, 2026. This program focuses on identifying and addressing heat-related injuries and illnesses in workplaces, and educating employers on how they can reduce these impacts on the job. To date, NEP has conducted nearly 7,000 inspections connected to heat risks, which lead to 60 heat citations and nearly 1,400 “hazard alert” letters being sent to employers.

How Can Subnational Governments Ready for this Upcoming Heat Season?

Downscaled federal capacity comes at a time when many states are facing budget shortfalls compounded by federal funding cuts and rescissions. The American Rescue Plan Act, the COVID-19 stimulus package, has been a crucial source of revenue for many local and state governments that enabled expansion in services, like extreme heat response. That funding must be spent by December 2026, and many subnational governments are facing funding cliffs of millions of dollars that could result in the elimination of these programs. While there is a growing attention to heat, it is still often deprioritized in favor of work on hazards that damage property.

Even in this environment, local and state governments can still make progress on addressing extreme heat’s impacts and saving lives. Subnational governments can:

• Conduct a data audit to ensure they are tracking the impacts of extreme heat, like emergency medical services activations, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths, and tracking expenditures dedicated to any heat-related activity. 
• Develop a heat preparedness and response plan, to better understand how to leverage existing resources, capacities, and partnerships to address extreme heat. This includes understanding emergency authorities available at the local and state level that could be leveraged in a crisis. 
• Use their platforms to educate the public about extreme heat and share common-sense strategies that reduce the risk of heat-illness, and public health departments can target communications to the most vulnerable. 
• Ensure existing capital planning and planned infrastructure build-outs prioritize resilience to extreme heat and set up cooling standards for new and existing housing and for renters. Subnational governments can also leverage strategies that reduce their fiscal risk, such as implementing heat safety practices for their own workforces and encouraging or requiring employers to deploy these practices as a way to reduce workers compensation claims. 

FAS stands ready to support leaders and communities in implementing smart, evidence-based strategies to build heat readiness – and to help interested parties understand more about the impacts of the Trump administration’s actions on federal heat capabilities. Contact Grace Wickerson (gwickerson@fas.org) with inquiries.

The Federation of American Scientists supports H.Res. 446, which would recognize July 3rd through July 10th as “National Extreme Heat Awareness Week”. 

The resolution is timely, as the majority of heat-related illness and death in the United States occurs from May to September. If enacted, H.Res. 446 would raise awareness about the dangers of extreme heat, enabling individuals and communities to take action to better protect themselves this year and for years to come.

“Extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related mortality and a growing economic risk,” said Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager for Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists. “We applaud Rep. Lawler and Rep. Stanton’s efforts to raise awareness of the threat of extreme heat with this resolution and the launch of the new Extreme Heat Caucus.”

The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 3738 of the 119th Congress, titled the “Heat Management Assistance Grant Act of 2025.”

The Heat Management Assistance Grant Act of 2025 creates the Heat Management Assistance Grant (HMAG) Program, a quick release of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments for managing heat events that could become major disasters. This resourcing can be used for responses to extreme heat events, including supplies, personnel, and public assistance. HMAG is modeled after the Fire Management Assistance Grant program, which similarly deploys quick funding to activities that prevent wildfires from becoming major disaster events. The bill also creates a definition for an extreme heat event, which informs subnational leaders on when they can ask for assistance.

“Heat emergencies, such as the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Dome and 2024 power outage following Hurricane Beryl in Texas, demonstrate a critical need for government assistance for heat-affected communities. Yet to date, there has been no federal pathway for rapidly resourcing heat response,” said Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager for Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists. “The Heat Management Assistance Grant Act of 2025 is a critical step in the right direction to unlock the resources needed to save lives, and aligns with key recommendations from our 2025 Heat Policy Agenda.”

46 million rural Americans face mounting risks from temperature extremes that threaten workforce productivity, raise business operational costs, and strain critical public services. Though extreme heat is often portrayed in research and the media as an urban issue, almost every state in the contiguous U.S. has rural communities with above-average rates of vulnerability to extreme heat. To protect rural America, Congress must address extreme heat’s impacts by repairing rural health systems, strengthening the preparedness of rural businesses, and hardening rural energy infrastructure.

Extreme heat exacerbates rural communities’ unique health vulnerabilities

On average, Americans living in rural areas are twice as likely as those in urban areas to have pre-existing health conditions, like heart disease, diabetes, and asthma, that make them more sensitive to heat-related illness and death. Further compounding the risk, rural places also have larger populations of underinsured and uninsured people than urban areas, with 1 in 6 people lacking insurance. 

Limited healthcare infrastructure in rural places worsens these vulnerabilities. Rural areas have higher shortages of healthcare professionals who provide primary care, mental health, and dental services than urban areas. Over the last decade, 100 rural hospitals have closed, and hundreds more are vulnerable to closure. Finally, many rural communities do not have public health departments, and those that do are underfunded and understaffed. Because public health systems and healthcare professionals are the first responders to extreme heat, rural residents are severely underprepared. 

Congress should provide flexible resources and technical assistance to rural hospitals to prepare for emerging threats like extreme heat. Additionally, Congress should continue to enable the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide loans or grant assistance to help rural residents retain access to health services and improve the financial position of rural hospitals and clinics. And because Medicaid expansion correlates with better rural hospital financial performance and fewer closures, Congress should invest in Medicaid to protect rural healthcare access.

Extreme heat puts rural businesses and workers at risk

Rural economic health relies on the outdoors (e.g., recreation tourism) and outdoor labor (e.g., agriculture and oil and gas extraction). Extreme heat in many of these places makes it dangerous to be outside, which impacts worker productivity and local business revenues. Indoor workers in facilities like manufacturing plants, food processing, and warehouses also face heat-related safety threats due to the presence of heat-producing machines and poorly ventilated buildings with limited cooling. These facilities are rapidly growing components of rural economies, as these sectors employ almost 1 in 5 rural workers. 

Simple protections like water, rest, shade, and cooling can improve productivity and generate returns on investments. But small-to-medium rural enterprises need support to adopt affordable cooling systems, shade and passive cooling infrastructure, and worker safety measures that reduce heat-related disruptions. Congress should help rural businesses reduce heat’s risks by appropriating funding to support workplace heat risk reduction and practical training on worker protections. Additionally, Congress should require OSHA to finalize a federal workplace heat standard.

Extreme heat threatens rural energy security

When a power outage happens during a severe extreme heat event, the chance of heat-related illness and death increases exponentially. Extreme heat strains power infrastructure, increasing the risk of power outages. This risk is particularly acute for rural communities, which have limited resources, older infrastructure, and significantly longer waits to restore power after an outage.

Weatherized housing and indoor infrastructure are one of the key protective factors against extreme heat, especially during outages. Yet rural areas often have a higher proportion of older, substandard homes. Manufactured and mobile homes, for example, compose 15% of the rural housing stock and are the one of the most at-risk housing types for extreme heat exposure. When the power is on, rural residents spend 40% more of their income on their energy bills than their urban counterparts. Rural residents in manufactured housing spend an alarming 75% more. Energy debt can force people to choose between paying for life-saving energy or food and key medications, compounding poverty and health outcomes. 

To drive the energy independence and economic resilience of rural America, Congress should support investments in energy-efficient and resilient cooling technologies, weatherized homes, localized energy solutions like microgrids, and grid-enhancing technologies.

As temperatures rise, the strain on energy infrastructure escalates, creating vulnerabilities for the efficiency of energy generation, grid transmission, and home cooling, which have significant impacts on businesses, households, and critical services. Without action, energy systems will face growing instability, infrastructure failures will persist, and utility burdens will increase. The combined effects of extreme heat cost our nation over $162 billion in 2024 – equivalent to nearly 1% of the U.S. GDP. 

The federal government needs to prepare energy systems and the built environment through strategic investments in energy infrastructure — across energy generation, transmission, and use. Doing so includes ensuring electric grids are prepared for extreme heat by establishing an interagency HeatSmart Grids Initiative to assess the risk of energy system failures during extreme heat and the necessary emergency responses. Congress should retain and expand home energy rebates, tax credits, and the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to enable deep retrofits that prepare homes against power outages and cut cooling costs, along with extending the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes (NIABC) to accelerate state and local adoption of code language for extreme heat adaptation.  

Challenge & Opportunity: Grid Security

Extreme Heat Reduces Energy Generation and Transmission Efficiency

During a heatwave, the energy grid faces not only surges in demand but also decreased energy production and reduced transmission efficiency. For instance, turbines can become up to 25% less efficient in high temperatures. Other energy sources are also impacted: solar power, for example, produces less electricity as temperatures rise because high heat slows the flow of electrical current. Additionally, transmission lines lose up to 5.8% of their capacity to carry electricity as temperatures increase, resulting in reliability issues such as rolling blackouts. These combined effects slow down the entire energy cycle, making it harder for the grid to meet growing demand and causing power disruptions.

Rising Demand and Grid Load Increase the Threat of Power Outages

Electric grids are under unprecedented strain as record-high temperatures drive up air conditioning use, increasing energy demand in the summer. Power generation and transmission are impeded when demand outpaces supply, causing communities and businesses to experience blackouts. According to data from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), between 2024 and 2028, an alarming 300 million people across the United States could face power outages. Texas, California, the Southwest, New England, and much of the Midwest are among the states and regions most at risk of energy emergencies during extreme conditions, according to 2024 NERC data. 

Data center build-out, driven by growing demand for artificial intelligence, cloud services, and big data analytics, further adds stress to the grid. Data centers are estimated to consume 9% of US annual electricity generation by 2030. With up to 40% of data centers’ total yearly energy consumption driven by cooling systems, peak demand during the hottest days of the year puts demand on the U.S. electric grid and increases power outage risk. 

Power outages bear significant economic costs and put human lives at severe risk. To put this into perspective, a concurrent heat wave and blackout event in Phoenix, Arizona, could put 1 million residents at high risk of heat-related illness, with more than 50% of the city’s population requiring medical care. As we saw with 2024’s Hurricane Beryl, more than 2 million Texans lost power during a heatwave, resulting in up to $1.3 billion in damages to the electric infrastructure in the Houston area and significant public health and business impacts.  The nation must make strategic investments to ensure energy reliability and foster the resilience of electric grids to weather hazards like extreme heat. 

Advancing Solutions for Energy Systems and Grid Security

Investments in resilience pay dividends, with every federal dollar spent on resilience returning $6 in societal benefits. For example, the DOE Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), have strengthened grid infrastructure, developed innovative technologies, and improved community resilience against extreme weather. It is essential that funds for this program, as well as other BIL and Inflation Reduction Act initiatives, continue to be disbursed.  

To build heat resilience in communities across this nation, Congress must establish the HeatSmart Grids Initiative as a partnership between DOE, FEMA, HHS, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NERC, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This program should (i) perform national audits of energy security and building-stock preparedness for outages, (ii) map energy resilience assets such as long-term energy storage and microgrids, (iii) leverage technologies for minimizing grid loads such as smart grids and virtual power plants, and (iv) coordinate protocols with FEMA’s Community Lifelines and CISA’s Critical Infrastructure for emergency response. This initiative will ensure electric grids are prepared for extreme heat, including the risk of energy system failures during extreme heat and the necessary emergency and public health responses.  

Challenge & Opportunity: Increasing Household and Business Energy Costs

As temperatures rise, so do household and business energy bills to cover cooling costs. This escalation can be particularly challenging for low-income individuals, schools, and small businesses operating on thin margins. For businesses, especially small enterprises, power outages, equipment failures, and interruptions in the supply chain become more frequent and severe due to extreme weather, negatively affecting production and distribution. One in six U.S. households (21.2 million people) find themselves behind on their energy bills, which increases the risk of utility shut-offs. One in five households report reducing or forgoing food and medicine to pay their energy bills. Families, school districts, and business owners need active and passive cooling approaches to meet demands without increasing costs.

Advancing Solutions for Businesses, Households, and Vital Facilities

Affordably cooled homes, businesses, and schools are crucial to sustaining our economy. To prepare the nation’s housing and infrastructure for rising temperatures, the federal government should:

• Expand the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, existing rebates and tax credits (including HER, HEAR, 25C, 179D, 45L, Direct Pay) to include passive cooling technology such as cool walls, pavements, and roofs (H.R. 9894). Revise 25C to be refundable at purchase to increase accessibility to low-income households.
• Authorize a Weatherization Readiness Program (H.R. 8721) to address structural, plumbing, roofing, and electrical issues and environmental hazards with dwelling units to make them eligible for WAP.
• Direct the DOE to work with its WAP contractors to ensure home energy audits consider passive cooling interventions, such as cool walls and roofs, strategically placing trees to provide shading and high-efficiency windows. 
• Extend the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes (NIABC) to include (i) the development of codes and metrics for sustainable and passive cooling, shade, materials selection, and thermal comfort and (ii) the identification of opportunities to accelerate state and local adoption of code language for extreme heat adaptation. Partner with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to create an Extreme Heat clearinghouse for model building codes.
• Authorize an extension to the DOE Renew America’s Schools Program to continue funding cost-saving, energy-efficient upgrades in K-12 schools. 
• Provide supportive appropriations to heat-critical programs at DOE, including: the Affordable Home Energy Shot, State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP), Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (DOE), and the Home Energy Rebates program

The Federation of American Scientists: Who We Are

At the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), we envision a world where the federal government deploys cutting-edge science, technology, ideas, and talent to solve and address the impacts of extreme heat. We bring expertise in embedding science, data, and technology into government decision-making and a strong network of subject matter experts in extreme heat, both inside and outside of government. Through our 2025 Heat Policy Agenda and broader policy library, FAS is positioned to help ensure that public policy meets the challenges of living with extreme heat.

Consider FAS a resource for… 

• Understanding evidence-based policy solutions
• Directing members and staff to relevant academic research 
• Connecting with issue experts to develop solutions that can immediately address the impacts of extreme heat

We are tackling this crisis with initiative, creativity, experimentation, and innovation, serving as a resource on environmental health policy issues. Feel free to always reach out to us:

The Federation of American Scientists supports The Heating and Cooling Relief Act of 2025. With summer right around the corner, it is more important than ever to ensure life-saving home cooling is affordable to all Americans.

The Heating and Cooling Relief Act of 2025 helps mitigate the negative health impacts of extreme heat through necessary modernizations of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The bill includes key provisions of the 2025 Heat Policy Agenda, including ensuring LIHEAP is reauthorized at a level to meet the demand from all eligible households, expanding emergency assistance authorities and funding to cover heating and cooling support during extreme temperature events, preventing energy shutoffs for LIHEAP beneficiaries, increasing the share of funding that can go towards preventative weatherization measures, and requiring the following studies:

• A study on safe residential temperature standards for federally assisted housing in consultation with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and strategies to keep housing within safe temperature ranges.
• A study from State Energy Offices that receive federal funds on pathways to retrofit the low-income housing stock to ensure it is adapted to rising temperatures, such as through efficient cooling systems and passive cooling.

“Access to affordable energy is crucial for health security, especially during extreme temperatures. Yet 1 in 6 households can’t afford their energy bills, and the costs of  heating and cooling homes are continuing to climb,” says Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager, Climate and Health. “The Federation of American Scientists is proud to support the Heating and Cooling Relief Act of 2025 bill to bring down the cost of energy for Americans through immediate relief as well as forward-thinking investments in resilience.”

The Federation of American Scientists supports the Cool Roof Product Rebate Act of 2025. 

The Cool Roof Product Rebate Act of 2025 would direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a federal rebate program for the purchase and installation of cool roofs. Cool roofs can help households lower energy costs, prevent the negative health impacts of high indoor temperatures, and improve community resiliency by reducing the strain on the grid. This legislation aligns with key recommendations from the FAS 2025 Heat Policy Agenda to enhance the resilience of housing to extreme heat.

“Housing and energy are key determinants of health, and both are becoming increasingly unaffordable to every day Americans” said Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager for Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists. “Rebates for cool roofs are smart ways to bring these critical technologies within reach for lower-income households, and allow them to lower their energy bills while bolstering the safety and resilience of their homes.”

The Federation of American Scientists supports S.1166, The Excess Urban Heat Mitigation Act.

The Excess Urban Heat Mitigation Act would establish a $30 million dollar grant program at Housing and Urban Development to support efforts to address urban heat via cooling infrastructure, such as green and cool roofs, reflective pavements, shade infrastructure, and tree planting and maintenance, and community resilience actions, such as cooling centers and heat mitigation education. These efforts align with key recommendations from the FAS 2025 Heat Policy Agenda to transform the built and landscaped environment to make it more resilient to the impacts of extreme heat.

“Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of injury and death and innovations in the built environment can save money and lives,” said Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager for Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists. “With temperatures already nearing 100°F in parts of the country, we must act now to protect our nation’s people, infrastructure, and economy.”  

The Federation of American Scientists supports S.325, a bill to establish the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) and the NIHHIS Interagency Committee.

S.325 would establish a clear, sustained federal governance structure for extreme heat by bringing all responsible agencies together to coordinate planning, preparedness, and response, a key recommendation of FAS’ 2025 Heat Policy Agenda. The bill also authorizes $5 million in annual appropriations for NIHHIS to deliver critical data, forecasts, and warnings and decision-support services as well as support a heat-health research program.

“Senator Markey, Gallego, and Padilla recognize that the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) is vital to the nation’s extreme heat preparedness and response. We need a comprehensive strategy to build U.S. resilience to extreme heat using science, technology, and evidence-based solutions. Our Nation’s people, infrastructure, and economy depend on it. There is no time to wait – heat season is less than three months away.” said Grace Wickerson, Senior Manager, Climate and Health at the Federation of American Scientists.