Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act of 2025, which I introduced today.
I firmly believe that all workers, including our most vulnerable workers, such as Nation's farmworkers, construction workers, and day laborers, deserve to have their health and safety protected at work. It has been nearly, 20 years since Asuncion Valdivia tragically lost his life to heatstroke while picking grapes in 105-degree heat under the Central Valley Sun. Mr. Valdivia's death was completely preventable, yet his story is not unique.
Heat protections continue to be a matter of life and death for millions of workers across the country doing backbreaking labor amid increasingly extreme temperatures. This bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to establish an enforceable standard to protect indoor and outdoor workers at risk for hazardous heat stress with measures like paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on time exposed to heat, and emergency response for workers with heat related illness. It also directs employers to provide training and hazard advisories to their employees about heat stress in the language their employees understand and in a format appropriate for their literacy and education levels. An interim final rule must be in place within 1 year of the bill's enactment.
This critical legislation will hold employers accountable and ensure commonsense, enforceable workplace protections are put in place to prevent workers from falling ill, collapsing on the job, or even losing their lives due to heat stress. As we continue to see increasingly extreme weather worldwide, workers across the country will be more at risk, but we can prevent these injuries with commonsense heat protections.
I would like to thank Senators Cortez Masto and Markey for coleading this bill with me and Representatives Chu and Scott for leading this legislation in the House. I hope our colleagues will join us to urgently address the threats posed by extreme heat as the climate crisis becomes more severe.
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