S. 325 — Coordinated Federal Response to Extreme Heat Act of 2025

This section defines terms used in the Act, including (1) extreme heat, as heat substantially exceeding local temperature norms in duration, intensity, season length, or frequency; (2) heat, as atmospheric parameters modulating human thermoregulation such as air temperature, humidity, solar exposure, and wind speed; (3) heat event, as an occurrence of extreme heat lasting two days or more with potential heat-health implications; (4) heat-health, as health effects or risks to humans from heat due to vulnerability or exposure; (5) planning, as scenario-based activities across timescales to mitigate heat-health risks; (6) preparedness, as activities with decision-support tools to manage heat risks before events; and (7) Tribal government, as the recognized governing body of any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, community, component band, or component reservation individually identified in the most recent list published pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5131) as of the date of enactment.

This section establishes within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the National Integrated Heat Health Information System Interagency Committee to coordinate a unified federal approach to reducing health risks from heat. The Committee includes the Director of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System and at least one representative from specified agencies and offices (e.g., National Weather Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and others), with three co-chairs initially selected from NOAA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and FEMA (NOAA retaining a co-chair slot thereafter) serving up to five-year terms and responsible for agenda-setting, directing work, and convening quarterly meetings. The Committee must (1) develop and submit to Congress a five-year strategic plan within two years of enactment (with updates every five years thereafter) outlining goals for data sharing on heat illnesses, research, user needs, and financing mechanisms; (2) coordinate federal activities on heat-health communication, research, service delivery, and workforce development; and (3) build capacity and partnerships with federal and non-federal entities.

This section establishes within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) to reduce heat-related impacts by (1) improving delivery of data, information, forecasts, warnings, predictions, and projections on temperature, extreme heat, and related impacts; (2) developing, through NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, science-based solutions and tools to improve impact-based decision support services for heat effects on human life, property, and the economy; and (3) supporting a coordinated heat health research program with agencies on the NIHHIS Interagency Committee. It requires System data and metadata to be fully and openly available consistent with the Federal Records Act and Federal Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018; directs NOAA's Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere to manage and steward archival System data and metadata at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI); and requires designation of at least one warning coordination meteorologist (WCM) at NCEI, as described in existing law (i.e., to liaise with National Weather Service product users, evaluate and improve products and services, and coordinate severe weather planning with government agencies). (As background, WCMs are currently designated at each National Weather Service weather forecast office.)

This section authorizes appropriations of $5 million for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to carry out sections 3 and 4, including administrative costs for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System Interagency Committee and the National Integrated Heat Health Information System.