Sec. 6. Study on extreme heat information and response
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Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System Program shall, in consultation with the entities described in section 4(g), complete a study on extreme heat information and response. The National Integrated Heat Health Information System Interagency Committee shall oversee the study required by paragraph (1). The study required by paragraph
(1)shall— identify policy and research gaps, which may include— regions of the United States with the largest gaps between awareness, preparedness, and capacity to address extreme heat; and heat-related gaps in data, such as— the number of schools, prisons, and other public facilities that lack air conditioning; and the demographic breakdown of people affected by heat events, including by race, age, gender, occupation, and income; provide recommendations for addressing gaps with respect to policy, research, operations, communications, and data, including the gaps identified under subparagraph (A), affecting heat-health planning, preparedness, response, resilience, adaptation, and environmental justice and equity; provide such other recommendations as the Director considers appropriate, which may include strategies for— communicating warnings to and promoting resilience of populations vulnerable to extreme heat; effectively distributing extreme heat warnings, including to individuals with limited English proficiency and individuals who are socially isolated or have other established barriers to such information; designing warnings described in clause
(ii)to convey the urgency and severity of heat events and achieve behavior changes that reduce the mortality and morbidity of extreme heat effects, without creating warning fatigue or confusion with other types of weather disaster warnings; understanding compound and cascading risks, and implementing alternative heat-health risk reduction interventions to manage those risks collectively, such as reducing risk of the transmission of infectious diseases during heat waves by creating outdoor cooling locations or increasing ventilation and filtration in indoor cooling centers; promoting community resilience to heat events and incorporating principles of environmental justice in community response to heat waves; addressing the impacts of extreme heat on energy cost and availability; and establishing labor and other standards for workers and heat; and consider such other subjects as the Committee considers appropriate, which may include— the feasibility of enhancing existing nationwide data collection on heat-related illnesses and mortalities to improve and ensure consistent collection of national-level heat illness data across all 50 States, territories, and local jurisdictions of the United States; mechanisms for financing heat preparedness; and the effectiveness of county- or local-level heat awareness and communication tools, preparedness plans, or mitigation. In conducting the study required by paragraph (1), the Director shall work with heat and health experts to identify consistent and agreed upon definitions for heat events, heat waves, and other relevant terms. Not later than 90 days after completing the study required by subsection (a)(1), the Committee shall— make available to the public on an internet website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a report on the findings and conclusions of the study; and submit the report to— the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives.