Position On H.R.3738 – Heat Management Assistance Grant Act of 2025
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.”
The federal government can support more proactive, efficient, and cost-effective resiliency planning by certifying predictive models to validate and publicly indicate their quality.
The cost of inaction is not merely economic; it is measured in preventable illness, deaths and diminished livelihoods.
Through investments in infrastructure for heat safety, Congress can save lives, protect the economy, and enhance resilience nationwide.
A deeper understanding of methane could help scientists better address these impacts – including potentially through methane removal.