Extreme Heat Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, Arizona has suffered year after year after year of record-breaking temperatures. Our summers are getting hotter, lasting longer, and providing little relief at night. This heat is incredibly dangerous for our health and for our economy.

Last summer, tragically, more than 600 of our fellow Arizonans lost their lives to the heat. Today, there are another 406 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, Arizona, parts of which I have represented for 25 years. Those deaths are under investigation. We are on track, yet again, to be one of the deadliest areas for heat exposure in this country.

That is why I launched the bipartisan Extreme Heat Caucus early this year with Congressman Mike Lawler of New York. At one point this summer, nearly half of the country's population was under an extreme heat warning. From coast to coast, we are struggling to keep people safe and to fully understand the challenges posed by extreme heat.

Extreme heat is a danger to public health, but it also threatens our very way of life. As heat waves get worse, roadways will crack, energy grids will falter, and crops will dry out. Insurance rates and electric bills will spike.

Some Arizonans saw triple-digit increases on their electric bills this summer. More evictions will follow. Frontline workers will stay home or end up hospitalized. Our local economies will lose millions.

We have to take this seriously, but this administration has shown a profound disregard for the problem at hand. From his very first day, President Trump has gutted the Federal heat response. Researchers, public health experts, and administrators of critical grant programs were caught up in Trump's mass firings, and it is everyday Americans who will pay the price. A senior, struggling to balance a tight budget, could be left high and dry without LIHEAP funds to cover their electric bills or keep the AC running. A single mother, working full time is worried that her child's school won't be able to keep him safe during recess or after-school sports practice. A landscaper, growing his small business, was diagnosed with kidney disease in his early 30s due to heat exposures.

Members of the Extreme Heat Caucus and I are fighting for the Federal workforce that handles extreme heat to be reinstated. Their work is critical to combat extreme heat and the greater climate crisis.

Without a robust Federal heat response, we put countless lives and billions of dollars at risk. The Extreme Heat Caucus is stepping up to change that. We are championing smart, bipartisan actions to combat extreme heat.

As a former mayor of Phoenix, I have been focused on heat policy that starts local, where the rubber meets the road. Our cities, counties, and universities are pioneering new ways to combat extreme heat and to respond to heat emergencies, but they are often going at it without proper and adequate funding.

My bipartisan bill, the Heat Management Assistance Grant Program Act, will allow States, local governments, and our Tribal partners to apply for dedicated, fast-release funding to respond to extreme heat events. This funding could be used to stand up cooling centers, purchase medical equipment for heat illnesses, or many other critical services.

For families worried about balancing high-energy costs with high grocery bills, I have been working to introduce the LIHEAP Parity Act. The bill will fairly and fully distribute LIHEAP dollars to families in cold weather States who need help with their heating bill in the winter and families in warm weather States like mine who need help with their air-conditioning bill in the summer.

We still don't know much about the possible impacts of extreme heat on our emergency response, so as the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure's Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee, I partnered with Congresswoman Dina Titus on the Extreme Weather and Heat Response Modernization Act, which, among many other things, will study the unexpected impacts of heat on key infrastructure and public health.

That study was wrapped into a larger FEMA reform package, and it passed our committee on a huge bipartisan margin. It will form an emergency response advisory panel to study slow moving natural disasters like extreme heat.

I am glad to see the study one step closer to law, and I will keep working to get the Extreme Weather and Heat Response Modernization Act across the finish line, as well.

I thank my colleagues who have come to speak before the House today. They understand the challenge before us.

As Members of Congress, our most basic duty as elected officials is to keep our constituents and fellow Americans safe. Right now, Congress must rise to the challenge and start actively combating the effects of heat.

All of us here agree on this duty before us. Now we have the responsibility to meet this moment and to save lives.

Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure now to yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), my friend, and the ranking member of the Education and Workforce Committee.

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Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Scott for his leadership on this important issue and the bill that he referenced supporting our workforce dealing with extreme heat. That is an important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, that is all of our speeches on this important topic of the extreme heat and the Extreme Heat Caucus. I yield back the balance of my time.

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