Sponsors (3)
Official title: Protect Moms and babies against climate change, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 21, 2026 by Edward John Markey · Last progress April 21, 2026
The bill directs new data, training, research, and targeted grants to protect pregnant people and infants from climate‑related harms and reduce disparities, but it increases federal spending, administrative complexity, and may leave many communities underserved or expose sensitive data without stronger safeguards.
Pregnant people and infants in high‑risk counties will be identified and receive targeted services (cooling, evacuation, housing, counseling, counseling on climate risks) to reduce climate‑related maternal and infant harms.
Federal and local agencies, hospitals, and researchers will gain improved data, local risk mapping, and a coordinated monitoring/strategy (including inventories of data sources and EPA/NOAA coordination) enabling better targeting of interventions and funding to the most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Health workforce capacity will expand: perinatal nonclinical workers are defined and health profession students/clinicians receive climate‑health training and hiring support so providers can identify and counsel vulnerable patients.
Taxpayers and the federal budget bear new or expanded costs (grant funds, research, training, monitoring), which may increase spending and deficits if not offset.
Federal, state, and local agencies and providers will face added administrative, reporting, and coordination burdens (grant competition, interagency alignment, annual/periodic reports) that could slow implementation and strain capacity.
Collecting and publicly reporting granular demographic and health data raises privacy and data‑sharing concerns for pregnant people and health providers if protections are not clearly specified.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Establishes HHS competitive grants, NIH research coordination, health-professions training grants, and a CDC strategy to protect pregnant people and infants from climate-related health risks.
Creates HHS-led programs and research coordination to reduce climate-change–related risks to pregnant people, newborns, and very young children. It directs HHS to run competitive grant programs for community health entities and health profession schools, set up an NIH research consortium on birth and climate change, and require CDC to develop a strategy to identify high-risk areas using environmental, health, and social measures. The law sets timelines for program establishment, specifies priority criteria (heat, air pollution, social vulnerability, maternal health indicators, FEMA risk), requires stakeholder consultation across federal agencies and community groups, and authorizes limited funding for the health-professions training grants. Grants focus on outreach, monitoring, workforce training (including nonclinical perinatal workers), and services targeted to vulnerable populations and areas with combined climate and health risks.