Sponsors (147)
The bill would substantially strengthen and standardize protections against occupational heat illness—likely reducing worker injuries and improving workplace safety—while imposing meaningful compliance, administrative, fiscal, and legal costs that will particularly affect small employers and stretch agency resources.
Outdoor and other high-heat workers (construction, agriculture, transportation, healthcare, manual laborers) gain stronger, enforceable protections that reduce heat-related illness and deaths through employer duties, mandatory controls, rest breaks, shade/hydration, PPE, and written prevention plans.
Workers and employers get clear, nationwide standards (enforceable written plans, multilingual training, employee participation) that create uniform protections and reduce uncertainty about required workplace heat-safety practices.
Employees (and employers) see likely economic benefits from fewer heat injuries through reduced lost workdays, improved productivity, and paid rest breaks, supporting income stability for workers and lower disruption for businesses.
Small businesses, agricultural employers, and other firms face substantial new compliance and operational costs (engineering controls, cooling, PPE, paid breaks, staffing, training) that could be passed to consumers or reduce business revenue.
The Department of Labor/OSHA may be strained by accelerated rulemaking timelines, expanded standards, and increased inspection/enforcement duties, risking implementation delays, uneven enforcement, or diversion of resources from other oversight.
Narrowed judicial review (D.C. Circuit focus), tight filing deadlines, and strong deference to agency interpretations reduce avenues for legal challenge and may limit judicial oversight of potentially overbroad rules.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Labor Secretary to set an OSHA‑equivalent worker heat protection standard and makes employers responsible for preventing heat-related illness, adds survey questions, and authorizes funding.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of Labor to promulgate an occupational safety and health standard to protect workers from heat-related injuries and illnesses.
Introduced July 16, 2025 by Judy Chu · Last progress July 16, 2025
Requires the Secretary of Labor to issue a mandatory worker heat protection standard that obligates employers to prevent heat-related illness, injury, and death by implementing engineering, administrative, personal protective, medical, training, and other controls. Treats the new standard as an OSHA-equivalent occupational safety standard, extends whistleblower protections and recordkeeping/reporting authorities, updates the National Agricultural Workers Survey to track heat impacts, and authorizes appropriations to carry out the law.