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It’s only early July and already more than 3,000 all-time temperature records have fallen in the United States. And as America celebrated its 250th anniversary, over 185 million Americans – over half the population – were under an extreme heat alert. Forecasters are anticipating a very hot summer that could take 2024’s “hottest year on record” crown. 

We’ve always had heat waves and hot places. But extreme heat is now touching every corner of our country. The implications of this growing threat are profound.

Extreme heat has become a national economic crisis: lowering productivity, shrinking business revenue, destroying crops, and pushing power grids to the brink. The impacts of extreme heat cost our Nation an estimated $162 billion in 2024 – equivalent to nearly 1% of the U.S. GDP. Additionally, local governments and their partners are footing the bill for increased demand for social services, public safety, and health care. 

Extreme heat is also taking a human toll. Heat kills more Americans every year than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. The number of heat-related illnesses is even higher.

Even when heat doesn’t kill, it severely compromises quality of life. During high heat, people have to make impossible choices: between eating or overheating, working in dangerous conditions or losing a paycheck, telling kids they can’t go outside or risking heat illness. They also face aging infrastructure not built for extreme temperatures that buckles in the heat. 

Policy needs to catch up to the scale of the extreme heat problem, and fast. To do so, policymakers at all levels will need to make their communities “heat safe” by (1) reducing heat risk in the places where people spend the most time and (2) preparing social and physical infrastructure to handle rising heat. Heat-safe communities are places that don’t just survive but thrive, and where people and families can grow and prosper.

Addressing rising heat will take all of us. Already, almost 150 organizations and government offices and over 150 experts have committed to supporting the State & Local Heat Policy Agenda. Together, we can create heat-safe homes, workplaces, schools, childcare facilities, and communities – the backbone of a heat-ready nation.

[See all policy recommendations at HeatAgenda.us]

Safe Homes

Home is where families raise children, work, spend time with and care for loved ones, and relax. Yet 13 million households report being too hot at home and at least 80 million people struggle to pay their electricity bills today. A cool home is the best strategy to keep people from getting sick.

To protect every family from dangerous heat at home, policymakers should:

• Establish the right to cooling. Every household should have guaranteed access to active and passive cooling systems that keep their home at safe, comfortable temperatures.
• Protect energy access during hot weather. Every household should be protected from utility disconnection and during power outages in hot weather. Every household should also be able to afford the energy needed to keep homes cool. 
• Upgrade existing homes for extreme heat. Every household should be able to afford and easily implement upgrades to their homes, from heat pumps to cool roofs.
• Create a heat-resilient housing supply. Every new home should be built to stay cool during extreme temperatures, even when the power goes out. 
• Ensure large loads do not create affordability and reliability risks during extreme heat. Every household should be protected from electricity price spikes and reliability issues due to large-load customer demand, like data centers, on high heat days. Households should also not subsidize energy costs and infrastructure for large-load customers.

Safe Workplaces

Every year, an estimated 28,000 workers are injured on the job during high heat days, and dozens lose their lives. Workplace heat protections are both a moral imperative and a common-sense win-win: they prevent injuries and deaths, reduce workers’ compensation claims, decrease employee turnover, and even increase productivity, boosting bottom lines.

To protect every worker from dangerous heat on the job, policymakers should:

• Secure heat protections in all workplaces. Every worker should be guaranteed paid rest, water and shade access, heat-acclimatization periods, and, if applicable, cooling in their employer-provided housing.
• Create or expand paid leave and income protection for days too hot to work. Every worker should be able to stay safe from heat without financial penalty or risk to job security. 
• Incentivize uptake of best practices for workplace heat safety. Every government should develop strategies that encourage employers to implement protections and maintain good heat safety records, such as through workers compensation or procurement practices.

Safe Schools and Childcare

Heat harms our children’s health, development, activity, mood, sleep, and ability to focus. Yet 1 in 3 schools don’t have adequate cooling and 45% of childcare facilities have been physically or financially strained by extreme weather. Kids deserve safe, cool spaces to learn and play.

To protect every child from dangerous heat at school and childcare, policymakers should:

• Keep kids safe from extreme heat at school and childcare. Every child should be guaranteed a cool environment, including classrooms, school grounds, athletic facilities, and school buses. Every school and childcare facility should have plans, training, and policies for hot weather, including school operations, recess, and for sporting and outdoor activities.
• Make heat resilience possible for all schools and childcare facilities. Every school and childcare provider should be able to afford to upgrade their facilities to keep children cool.

Safe Communities

Dangerous heat is happening earlier in the year and lasting longer, while average temperatures across seasons are on the rise, affecting everything from snowpack to crops. Recognizing our new heat reality and preparing accordingly prevents deaths and avoids infrastructure failures and economic losses, while creating places where people want to build their lives and families.

To help every community get heat-safe, policymakers should:

• Prepare for higher temperatures as an acute emergency as well as a chronic risk. Every government should have plans for annual heat preparedness and long-term risk mitigation as well as strategies to coordinate with surrounding governments on efforts.
• Establish a governance structure and training for extreme heat. Every government should designate a public official (either a new hire or current employee) with authority and budget to lead heat efforts, coordinate interagency and intergovernmental efforts, and form partnerships with nonprofits, health systems, and the private sector. Every government should also upskill all frontline employees in their roles for heat mitigation and response.
• Assess heat’s impacts and costs. Every government should track heat impacts on people, infrastructure, the economy, and their budgets and set goals to reduce heat’s effects.
• Declare and respond to heat as an emergency. Every government should have and deploy the resources to protect their populations, such as shelter and welfare checks. Every government should prepare for infrastructure failures like of energy and water systems.
• Shape and finance heat-resilient infrastructure. Every government should set incentives or requirements to reduce heat’s impacts on people and infrastructure and identify or create public and private funding for building and maintaining heat-resilient infrastructure like trees, shade, back up power for critical facilities, and grid upgrades.

To learn more about how every state is implementing the Agenda’s recommendations, click here. To support this effort as a public signatory, click here. And to learn more about how you, your organization, or your government can help build a heat-resilient nation, contact Grace Wickerson (gwickerson@fas.org).

‘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.

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.”