In response to an increase in heat-related deaths and illnesses during the previous four years, the Biden administration has issued a strategy that tasks 28 federal agencies with increasing U.S. resiliency to the effects of extreme heat through 2030. The strategy also reflects the need for federal regulations to reduce the impact of heat stress on workers, as stated in a report on workplace safety and health produced by the AFL-CIO.

Issued on Aug. 14, 2024, the National Heat Strategy directs agencies as diverse as the Administration for Children and Families and the Department of Defense to implement four goals and objectives that are expected to increase U.S. resiliency to extreme heat conditions.

The strategy recognizes that responses to extreme heat events are typically a collaborative effort involving state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and community groups. Thus, a major feature of the plan is for federal agencies to take a “unified approach to align and strengthen federal capacity, capabilities, and resources to ensure the nation is resilient to heat.”

While the increase in heat-related deaths and illnesses is a key factor in issuing the heat strategy, other factors are cited as reasons for producing the action blueprint. Those factors are:

• Extreme-heat events are projected to be more frequent, intense, and longer in duration.

• Extreme heat does not affect all people equally, so special attention must be paid to populations who are especially at risk of heat-related illnesses.

Building on the groundwork established by the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), which is an interagency information system designed to develop and provide actionable, science-based information to help protect people from the impacts of extreme heat conditions, the National Heat Strategy outlines four “goals” to guide federal agencies’ policies and programs that can increase U.S. resiliency to extreme-heat conditions. The goals and some of the directions designed to guide the agencies are:

• Goal 1: Communication, Outreach, and Education. The agencies are to understand the public's needs and perceptions, expand awareness of extreme heat while inspiring public action to address its impacts, and increase opportunities for education, training, and knowledge at all levels.

• Goal 2: Science. The agencies are to advance their understanding of heat and its impacts to develop science-based services and solutions that enhance resilience by researching the effect heat has on health, the economy, the environment, infrastructure, population, migration, disasters, and conflict. 

• Goal 3: Solutions. The agencies are to improve and facilitate an integrated approach with access to heat information, services, and solutions to support international, national, state, local, territorial, tribal, and individual actions that conduct assessments to identify at-risk populations, systems, and infrastructure.  

• Goal 4: Support. The agencies are to help solidify the NIHHIS as the primary integrated federal source for heat-related health information and solutions, enhance interagency coordination and collaboration to identify available resources and information gaps, and facilitate action.

The AFL-CIO has been producing an annual report on the state of safety and health protections for workers for 33 years. The 2024 edition of the “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” report notes the absence of federal heat regulations for the workplace and the impact the lack of such regulations has had on workers.

In the section on “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention” in the “Death on the Job” report, the AFL-CIO says, “Occupational heat exposure has been a significant issue for decades. Working in hot and humid conditions, outdoors and indoors, puts workers at serious risk of heat stress, heat exhaustion, cramps, heat rash, and heat stroke, which can result in death. Each year, dozens of workers die, and thousands more become ill from heat exposure. The risk from occupational heat exposures increases as the global temperature rises, and without enforceable standards to protect workers.”

However, the report notes that in 2021, the Biden administration began efforts “to address heat exposure across vulnerable populations, including workers,” and on April 12, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiated its “National Emphasis Program” (NEP), a limited-scope targeted enforcement program for outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards.

Under the NEP, state OSHAs are strongly encouraged, but not required, to adopt NEPs, says the ALF-CIO report, which points out that as of Jan. 19, 2024, only 17 states had adopted the program, but that some states had already instituted heat-enforcement schemes before the national program was issued. 

This includes California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington. Oregon’s heat standard covers indoor and outdoor workers. California and Washington state only have outdoor standards, but both are expected to develop indoor standards. Furthermore, Minnesota only has an indoor standard, and Colorado has a rule protecting agricultural workers from heat.

Maryland began work on a heat standard in early 2024 and is expected to complete a draft of its standard by the end of the year.

The report also lists the states with the worst approaches toward worker heat protection, including Florida and Texas. Both have measures preventing local municipalities from issuing employer requirements that would protect workers from heat, such as mandatory breaks for water, rest, and shade.