There have been 27 major disaster declarations issued by President Trump to date in 2025. The disasters vary in dimension and scope, from the L.A. wildfires to Midwest tornadoes and the Texas flooding in addition to a number of winter storms. Lots of them have resulted in fatalities and billions of {dollars} in injury to property and companies, however one main lethal climate occasion that occurred in June hasn’t been declared: an excessive warmth wave.
Between June 20-24, a warmth dome, or the presence of excessive warmth over a area that lingers for an prolonged time frame, uncovered practically half of the nation to dangerously excessive temperatures. On June 24, seven states tied or broke monthly high temperature records, many exceeding triple digits. A type of states, Maryland, reported that 472 individuals wanted medical help for heat-related diseases throughout that point when the warmth index topped 110 levels in some locations. However there is not any catastrophe declaration for the occasion listed on the FEMA web site.
That is as a result of excessive warmth isn’t thought-about a “catastrophe” that’s eligible for federal funding, in keeping with the Stafford Act, which is the guiding legislation that outlines when and the way the president can declare disasters and direct the Federal Emergency Administration Company to offer help to state and native governments.
Now, three Democratic lawmakers try to vary that. Senators Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, together with Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of Texas, have proposed laws to categorise excessive warmth as a catastrophe, which might enable federal funding to circulate into areas the place hotter temperatures trigger important bodily and financial misery. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York has signed on as a co-sponsor.
“Final 12 months, greater than 500 individuals died in a single single county in Nevada from heat-related diseases,” Rosen mentioned in a press release. “Present federal coverage ignores the bodily and well being dangers that such extraordinarily excessive temperatures have on our communities, which is why I am introducing a invoice to vary that. By classifying excessive warmth as a serious catastrophe, our communities will be capable of obtain the federal funding wanted to reply and put together for future excessive warmth occasions.”
It isn’t the primary time Rosen has proposed the laws. She launched a similar bill in 2024 that handed by the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee somewhat shortly, earlier than being blocked by a Senate Republican.
Underneath the Stafford Act, there are 16 varieties of pure disasters listed, outlined as “any hurricane, twister, storm, flood, excessive water, winddriven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, drought, hearth, or different disaster in any a part of the US which causes, or which can trigger, substantial injury or damage to civilian property or individuals.” It doesn’t explicitly record excessive warmth.
In a press release, Gallego mentioned that extra Individuals are killed by excessive warmth than some other type of excessive climate incident mixed, in keeping with the National Weather Service. “By including excessive warmth to FEMA’s record of main disasters, we are able to unlock the funds and assist our communities desperately want,” he added.
In response to Rosen’s workplace, declaring excessive warmth a serious catastrophe would allow states and native governments to request federal funds that might present further cooling facilities, air-con to communities that want it, cash for water infrastructure tasks, in addition to a mechanism the place communities can request cash for warmth adaptation tasks, corresponding to planting extra timber, or constructing shade buildings to cut back city warmth.
However there are some who don’t agree that including excessive warmth to the Stafford Act is critical.
“It’s already eligible below the Stafford Act,” says Deanne Criswell, the previous FEMA administrator below President Biden, “There’s nothing that excludes a governor from requesting a declaration for excessive warmth.”
There have been at the least three previous times when a governor requested a serious catastrophe declaration for excessive warmth: in 1980 by the governor of Missouri; in 1995, when the Illinois governor requested it over a warmth wave that killed more than 700 people; and most lately in 2022, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom requested a serious catastrophe declaration for a warmth dome and ensuing wildfires. In all cases, the requests had been denied on the time by the sitting president.
In response to Criswell, the Stafford Act is designed to pay for impacts to infrastructure attributable to a pure catastrophe, however the majority of sources a state would possibly want for excessive warmth — like cooling facilities, tree shade, and air-con — are issues that may be addressed forward of an excessive warmth occasion by present hazard mitigation grants.
“What broken infrastructure do you will have from an excessive warmth scenario?” Criswell advised CBS News, “You might need energy points, however is it broken or is it only a short-term scenario due to the overload on it?”
Whereas Criswell does not see the necessity for excessive warmth to be added to the Stafford Act to qualify for catastrophe funding, she does imagine there must be a better emphasis on supporting hazard mitigation projects and funding, which have been subject to cuts below the Trump administration.
“This administration has not been granting the hazard mitigation grant programing to those catastrophe declarations,” says Criswell. The reasoning behind that, she says, is as a result of a lot of the mitigation cash that was given in earlier catastrophe declarations hasn’t been utilized.
The White Home has not commented on excessive warmth being added as a catastrophe danger, and President Trump has centered on overhauling FEMA and shifting catastrophe response and restoration to states.
The Occupational Security and Well being Administration lately concluded a series of public hearings because it debates whether or not to institute the primary federal rule to guard indoor and outside employees from warmth, which might mandate employers present paid breaks, water and shade.
The rule has confronted criticism from enterprise teams, together with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which says the rule would “impose unreasonable burdens.” Enterprise teams have backed efforts in some Republican-led states, like Florida and Texas, to dam native municipalities from passing warmth safety guidelines for employees.
Regardless of the pushback, seven states — Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland — have adopted unbiased warmth safety guidelines for employees, however important federal laws to handle excessive warmth, each within the office and for catastrophe declarations, stays an uphill battle for Democrats.