I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5296 
To reduce the health risks of heat by establishing the National Integrated 
Heat Health Information System Program 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 estab-
lishing financial assistance programs to address heat effects, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 
Mr. CRIST (for himself and Ms. BONAMICI) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 
addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To reduce the health risks of heat by establishing the Na-
tional Integrated Heat Health Information System Pro-
gram within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration and the National Integrated Heat Health 
Information System Interagency Committee to improve 
extreme heat preparedness, planning, and response, re-
quiring a study, and establishing financial assistance pro-
grams to address heat effects, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 2021’’ or the ‘‘Preventing HEAT Illness and 
Deaths Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE
COMMUNITY.— 
The term ‘‘environmental justice community’’ means 
a community with significant representation of com-
munities 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 exceeds local climatological 
norms in terms of any combination of the following: 
(A) Duration. 
(B) Intensity. 
(C) Season length. 
(D) Frequency. 
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(3) HEAT.—The term ‘‘heat’’ means any com-
bination of the parameters associated with modu-
lating human thermal regulation, such as air tem-
perature, humidity, solar exposure, and wind speed. 
(4) HEAT
EVENT.—The term ‘‘heat event’’ 
means an occurrence of extreme heat 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) PLANNING.—The term ‘‘planning’’ means 
activities performed across timescales (including 
days, weeks, months, years, and decades) with sce-
nario-based, probabilistic or deterministic informa-
tion to identify and take actions to proactively miti-
gate heat-health risks from increased frequency and 
intensity of heat waves and increased ambient tem-
perature. 
(7) PREPAREDNESS.—The term ‘‘preparedness’’ 
means activities performed across timescales (includ-
ing days, weeks, months, years, and decades) with 
probabilistic or deterministic information to manage 
risk in advance of a heat event. 
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(8) URBAN HEAT ISLAND.—The term ‘‘urban 
heat island’’ means the phenomenon observed in ur-
banized areas in which heat is more extreme than in 
the surrounding exurban areas and heat is hetero-
geneously 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 2.2° F relative to current temperatures, 
regardless of future scenarios. The National Climate 
Assessment projects that the frequency and intensity 
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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 re-
sult in more than 65,000 emergency room visits 
each year and exacerbate respiratory and cardio-
vascular illnesses. 
(4) Heat poses the greatest health risks for 
adults older than 65 years of age, pregnant people, 
young children, low-income communities, urban com-
munities, communities with low air conditioning 
prevalence, socially isolated individuals, people with 
mental or physical disabilities, people with under-
lying medical conditions, agricultural or other out-
door workers, workers without sufficient access to 
cooling, athletes, incarcerated individuals, people ex-
periencing homelessness, and military personnel. 
(5) Increasingly common environmental expo-
sures exacerbated by climate change, such as ex-
treme heat, are significantly associated with serious 
adverse pregnancy outcomes across the United 
States. Those adverse pregnancy outcomes dispro-
portionately impact Black mothers. 
(6) Heat exposure is an issue of environmental 
justice, as people living in low-income communities, 
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communities of color, and Tribal communities 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 prop-
erties create an urban heat island, particularly in 
neighborhoods with limited availability of or access 
to green spaces, shade, and tree cover, higher den-
sity of building structures, and more vehicular traf-
fic. 
(8) Limited availability of tree cover and higher 
temperatures are correlated with low-income neigh-
borhoods in urban areas. In Richmond, Virginia, 
Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC, re-
searchers found that heat risk is disproportionately 
distributed to communities of color in patterns asso-
ciated with segregation and redlining. 
(9) Researchers have found that few commu-
nities 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 transdiscipli-
nary approach. 
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(11) Regions, communities, and populations 
that face the greatest health consequences of ex-
treme 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 pre-
cautions. 
(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, incon-
sistent reporting of health outcomes and contribu-
tory factors, poor data integration and interoper-
ability, few incentives and little systematic coordina-
tion to address those problems, and a lack of ade-
quate climate observation, modeling, and assessment 
in urban, indoor, and occupational settings. 
(13) Integrated climate and health research and 
information, when developed in a collaborative, 
transdisciplinary manner, can inform long- and me-
dium-range scenario-based planning and decision 
making to protect vulnerable communities and popu-
lations from extreme heat, reduce exposure to ex-
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