Sponsors (9)
The bill strengthens federal guidance, planning, and targeted support to protect people and infrastructure from extreme heat and cold—especially vulnerable communities and first responders—but does so at the cost of increased federal and local spending, added administrative burdens, and short-term uncertainty or uneven implementation during transition.
Low-income households, seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable residents will gain more direct protection during extreme heat and cold through federally supported cooling/resilience centers, equipment, vouchers, and targeted assistance.
State and local governments (and applicants) will get clearer, consistent definitions, guidance, and a single public reference on incident periods and extreme temperature, improving planning, eligibility decisions, and transparency.
Projects that mitigate extreme-heat impacts (e.g., cooling centers, shaded transit stops, grid/cooling upgrades) become explicitly eligible for hazard mitigation funding, increasing access to grants to reduce service disruptions.
Taxpayers may face substantial new federal spending to expand FEMA programs, stockpiles, resilience centers, and mitigation support.
State and local governments (and some nonprofits/hospitals) could incur new costs — matching funds, infrastructure upgrades, administrative capacity — creating budgetary strain at the local level.
Required reviews, rulemaking, and study/report deadlines could delay immediate updates and divert attention or funding from on-the-ground mitigation, producing uncertainty about which disasters qualify for assistance during the transition.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Directs FEMA to review incident-period rules, study extreme heat/cold impacts, issue guidance, and expand eligible mitigation/preparedness activities (cooling/resilience centers, equipment, vouchers).
Official title: To direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take certain actions relating to incident periods and extreme weather, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 29, 2025 by Alice Costandina Titus · Last progress May 29, 2025
Requires FEMA to study, plan for, and update how the agency defines and responds to extreme heat and cold events. The bill creates an advisory panel to review how “incident periods” are set for disasters, directs FEMA to treat certain heat/cold preparedness and mitigation projects as eligible under the Stafford Act, orders new guidance on extreme-temperature hazards, and requires studies and reports on impacts and response recommendations, with deadlines for interim and final reports and later rulemaking. Aimed at improving FEMA policy and hazard-mitigation eligibility for slow‑onset, compound, and regionally varied extreme temperature events, the measure focuses on community cooling/resilience centers, equipment stockpiles/vouchers, first responder safety, and guidance for integrating extreme heat/cold into hazard mitigation planning and preparedness documents.