Federal heat-health system targets cooling aid to low-income communities
H.R. 5104 — Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act of 2025 · Filed by Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill establishes a federal heat-health coordination system within NOAA to reduce deaths and illnesses from extreme heat. It creates an interagency committee bringing together 16+ federal departments, a new NOAA office to deliver heat forecasts and warnings to vulnerable communities, a research grant program, and $10–30 million annually in direct financial assistance to states, tribes, cities, and nonprofits for cooling infrastructure, worker protections, and community preparedness—with at least 40% directed to low-income and communities of color historically hit hardest by heat waves.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is establishing a federal heat-health coordination system and directing resources to vulnerable communities. It is not a market intervention, tax provision, or industry carve-out—it is a public-health infrastructure bill with explicit environmental-justice framing and resource allocation.
What the text implies
- The bill requires federal agencies to share health and climate data on heat-related illnesses, potentially improving epidemiological surveillance but raising privacy questions around medical data aggregation and interoperability across 16+ agencies.
- The 40% set-aside for environmental-justice communities may create administrative burden on smaller municipalities and nonprofits to apply for and manage federal grants, potentially favoring larger, better-resourced entities despite the equity intent.
- The study requirement (section 6) explicitly examines discontinued federal heat-health tools (CDC Heat and Health Tracker, etc.), suggesting prior tools were defunded or deprioritized—this bill may be a response to a prior policy reversal.
- The bill authorizes NOAA to enter grant agreements with 'centers of excellence' but does not define selection criteria, potentially allowing discretionary allocation of research funding.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens, especially low-income households, elderly people, outdoor workers, and communities of color, gain access to improved heat warnings, cooling centers, retrofitted housing, and community preparedness resources. The bill explicitly prioritizes environmental-justice communities and mandates 40% of assistance reach low-income areas—populations that face the highest heat mortality and fewest resources to adapt.
Who stands to gain
- nonprofit organizations (cooling centers, community resilience projects)
- state and local governments (heat planning, infrastructure)
- Indian Tribes and tribal organizations
- academic institutions and research centers
- construction/retrofit contractors (cool roofs, pavements, HVAC upgrades)
- energy efficiency and weatherization service providers
Named in the bill
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Weather Service, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Indian Health Service, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Democrats.
- Sep 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $250,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 38 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Suzanne Bonamici, the sponsor, reported $461,650 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- League of Conservation Voters — $230,000 on 1 filing
- West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (34,769 characters) on Aug 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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