Sponsors (9)
The bill directs federal research, monitoring, and recurring grant funding to reduce harms from wildfire smoke and extreme heat—improving science-based protections and local planning—while creating ongoing federal costs and risks that benefits will concentrate among better-resourced institutions and jurisdictions unless implementation explicitly protects rural, tribal, and underserved communities.
State, local, tribal governments and communities in wildfire- and heat-impacted areas gain predictable federal grant funding ($50M/year) to develop multi-year community plans and mitigation measures for smoke and extreme heat.
Residents (including low-income, urban, rural) and outdoor workers benefit from new university-based research centers, improved monitoring/prediction tools, and research-informed interventions that can reduce smoke- and heat-related illnesses, hospital visits, and lost workdays.
Localities, tribal governments, and schools receive technical assistance tied to grants that helps resource-limited jurisdictions apply for and implement federal programs.
Taxpayers will fund recurring federal programs—about $30M/year for university centers plus $50M/year for grants (roughly $80M/year beginning FY2026)—increasing federal spending and potentially crowding out other priorities.
Rural, tribal, and smaller or less-resourced communities risk being left behind because centers and grant collaboration/eligibility rules, plus competitive grant processes, tend to concentrate benefits at a few institutions or better-resourced jurisdictions.
Delegating the statutory definition of 'extreme heat' to EPA rulemaking could delay having an immediate, clear threshold and may allow a narrower, administratively driven definition that some communities view as insufficient to trigger protections.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates EPA grant and research programs to help communities detect, plan for, and mitigate wildfire smoke and extreme heat, and authorizes funding beginning FY2026.
Official title: Amend the Clean Air Act to establish a grant program for supporting local communities in detecting, preparing for, communicating about, or mitigating the environmental and public health impacts of wildfire smoke and extreme heat, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 30, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress January 30, 2025
Creates new EPA grant and research programs to help communities detect, prepare for, communicate about, and reduce health and environmental harms from wildfire smoke and extreme heat. It funds grants for monitoring, outreach, filtration and protective equipment, creates university-based Centers of Excellence to study smoke and heat impacts, and establishes a competitive planning grant program for states, local governments, tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Sets program design rules (eligibility, eligible activities, and a distribution formula that accounts for community vulnerability and smoke/heat risk), deadlines to start activities within 180 days, and authorizes multi-year funding beginning in fiscal year 2026 for research centers and planning grants. The EPA Administrator implements the programs, subject to appropriations.