Sponsors (29)
The bill directs federal funding and technical support to plant trees, build shade and cooling infrastructure, and extend Healthy Streets programs that improve heat resilience, safety, equity, and local jobs in heat-burdened communities, while increasing upfront and ongoing costs, administrative burdens, and potential trade-offs with other transportation funding and project timelines.
Residents in heat-vulnerable, urban and low-income neighborhoods (including children and seniors) will experience cooler streets, improved air quality, and reduced heat-related health impacts from expanded tree canopy and cooling infrastructure along transit corridors and school zones.
Pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users (students, parents, commuters) will get safer, more usable walk/bike/transit corridors and longer-supported Healthy Streets projects due to project funding and the program extension through 2030.
Targeting funds to historically under-resourced or heat-burdened communities advances environmental justice and equity by directing federal programs and resources to high-need areas.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face higher upfront and ongoing costs for planting, sensors, data systems, and long-term tree maintenance (watering/upkeep), increasing operating costs for grantees and local governments.
Local governments, transit agencies, and small grantees may be strained by long-term maintenance responsibilities and added compliance burdens, which could stress municipal budgets and small organizations.
Integrating projects into existing federal transportation funding streams (e.g., Surface Transportation Block Grant) risks reallocating limited transportation funds and reducing local flexibility for other priorities.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Extends the Healthy Streets program to 2030 and expands eligible partners, activities, and reporting to fund cooling infrastructure and heat-mitigation along multimodal corridors.
Official title: To reauthorize and amend the Healthy Streets program to enhance the resilience, accessibility, and safety of the Nation's transportation corridors by supporting strategic investments in tree canopy, shade infrastructure, and other nature-based cooling strategies along pedestrian, bicycle, and transit routes.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Marilyn Strickland · Last progress July 15, 2025
Extends and expands the federal "Healthy Streets" program through 2030 and broadens what projects and partners can receive support to reduce extreme-heat impacts along walking, biking, transit, and school corridors. The bill adds definitions for "cool corridor" and "heat mitigation strategies," funds tree canopy, green infrastructure, shade structures, sensors, community engagement, and workforce development, requires local plan approval and maintenance responsibilities, and orders interagency coordination, technical assistance, and a 5-year program evaluation with recommendations for permanent integration into surface transportation grants. The law aims to reduce heat exposure, improve pedestrian/cyclist/transit safety and access, extend infrastructure life, and prioritize underinvested communities with higher heat burdens. Recipients must report annually on temperature reduction, resilience, public-health/equity metrics, cost-benefit, and community engagement results; the Secretary of Transportation will provide guidance and a report to Congress within five years.