Sponsors (143)
Introduced July 16, 2025 by Judy Chu · Last progress July 16, 2025
The bill establishes enforceable, nationwide protections to reduce heat‑related illness and deaths among outdoor and high‑heat workers, at the cost of meaningful compliance, administrative, and potential fiscal burdens that will fall especially on small, rural, and seasonal employers.
Outdoor and manual workers (construction, agriculture, transportation, energy, etc.) gain legally required heat protections — paid rest breaks, access to potable cool water, shade/cool-down spaces, training, employer‑provided PPE, and clearer protections — reducing heat-related illness, injuries, and deaths.
Employers nationwide must meet an enforceable, OSHA‑level worker heat protection standard (including engineering controls such as ventilation and climate control), which should reduce workplace heat exposures and long‑term health risks and create uniform safety expectations.
Workers who must be medically removed for heat illness will receive pay protection, reducing income loss and financial harm for affected employees.
Small businesses, farms, and other employers will face significant compliance costs (engineering upgrades, paid breaks, PPE, training, recordkeeping), which may be passed to consumers, reduce hiring or hours, or threaten viability for some firms.
Smaller and rural employers — especially in agriculture and seasonal labor markets — may disproportionately struggle to afford required engineering controls and other measures, risking uneven regional impacts, reduced employment, or lower wages.
Operational disruptions (schedule changes, more rest breaks, slower production while implementing controls) could reduce on‑the‑job hours, output, or productivity for some workplaces, affecting wages and supply chains.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires employers to provide workplaces free from dangerous heat conditions and directs the Secretary of Labor to issue a binding worker heat-protection standard that limits employee exposure to heat. The standard must require measures such as cool potable water, paid rest breaks, shade or cool-down spaces, acclimatization policies, training, medical protections, and recordkeeping; an interim rule must be issued within one year and will take effect when issued. Gives the heat standard the same legal effect as other OSHA standards, creates a defined rulemaking and judicial-review timetable (including limited review in the D.C. Circuit), extends whistleblower protections tied to heat safety, authorizes necessary funding, and requires better data collection on heat illness among agricultural workers through the NAWS survey.