Record heat spurs Nevada lawmakers’ push for federal response

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., has lived through many Southern Nevada summers, when the struggle of dealing with the extreme heat is so severe that residents are dropping dead at an alarming rate.

Clark County this week announced that so far this summer the total number of deaths in which heat was a factor stood at 63.

And there’s been plenty of heat to go around in Las Vegas, according to the National Weather Service: Temperatures here reached at least 105 degrees every day in July; in the weeklong stretch from July 6 to 12, the daily high reached at least 115 degrees; and on July 7 the temperature hit 120 degrees to mark the hottest day on record here.

“As we’ve seen here in Las Vegas, summers are getting hotter — we hit a record of 120 degrees — and so, they’re getting hotter, they’re lasting longer, they’re having greater consequences,” Titus said in an interview with the Sun. “These costs are great. There are health care costs; the environmental cost, we’re losing water out of Lake Mead; you got more forest fires; and then the impacts on business and transportation.”

Titus and U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev, have introduced bills to acknowledge the nation’s extreme heat events as major disasters and provide federal resources for affected communities.

Titus hopes legislation she proposed last month in the House will expand mitigation measures against extreme heat. The Extreme Weather and Heat Response Modernization Act would empower the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to better address extreme heat and to provide communities with more resources, including cooling centers, to keep people safe during extreme heat events, her office said.

And it’s not just in Nevada.

Over Fourth of July weekend, when Nevadans were dealing with record-high temperatures, nearly 130 million nationally were living with extreme heat conditions, Titus’ office said.

“In Arizona, we know all too well that extreme heat can be deadly,” Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., who co-sponsored the legislation, said in a statement. “Strengthening and expanding FEMA’s capacity to help state and local governments respond to more frequent and intense heat waves is a commonsense step that will save lives.”

The proposal calls for FEMA to create an advisory panel of representatives from national emergency management organizations and the 10 FEMA regions to review the process for setting incident periods for disaster declarations.

Rosen on Wednesday introduced legislation that would allow extreme heat to qualify as a major disaster under the Stafford Act, the 1987 bill that recognizes fires, floods, explosions and natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes as disasters eligible for a major disaster declaration from the president. The bill was assigned to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for study.

Titus’ legislation, her office said, is supported by the city of Las Vegas, Desert Research Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council.

“As Las Vegas endures recent record-breaking temperatures, it makes sense that our traditional response to extreme weather events — especially extreme heat — should be reviewed to more carefully consider the effects of these events on our critical infrastructure, public health and overall economy,” city of Las Vegas Emergency Manager Carolyn Levering said in a statement. “Passage of this act will support important studies and make resources more accessible to our region and across the country to help local emergency management response efforts better prepare for, and more effectively combat, the effects of extreme weather events, especially the extreme heat of the summer months in desert southwest areas like Las Vegas.”

The legislation also calls for the federal agency to conduct research that would measure the impact of extreme heat on infrastructure, the economy and public health.

FEMA’s administrator would be directed to consider stockpiling and installing cooling equipment to aid individuals during extreme heat events and emergency voucher programs eligible for grant funding under the 1988 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.

As of July 2024, Clark County has over 40 cooling centers — from libraries to recreation centers — including within other jurisdictions like North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson.

Titus’ and Rosen’s bills are among the handful of legislation being rolled out to address and protect Americans from extreme heat. Last month, President Joe Biden proposed a new rule that would protect 36 million workers from heat-related illness or injuries.

Biden’s rule would be the first major federal safety standard of its kind if finalized.

The proposed rule would require employers to identify heat hazards, develop emergency response plans for heat illness and give training to employees and supervisors on the symptoms of these illnesses. Employers would also need to establish rest breaks, provide shade and water and help their employees safely build tolerance to higher temperatures.

A senior White House administration official told The Associated Press that penalties for heat-related violations in the workplace would increase significantly in adherence to what workplaces are issued for violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules.

Though the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure — which Titus serves on — is in recess until after Labor Day, Titus believes representatives are recognizing the dangers of extreme heat and hopes her bill with Stanton will get passed this session.

“This is being recognized across government agencies, because it’s increasingly a serious problem,” Titus said. “We (also) need to keep in mind development of parks, green spaces and cities, covered bus stations; all those things have to deal with heat on an individual, personal level. But we’ll wait and see what the emergency managers recommend. That’s why we want to start with this commission to get them to come with best practices.”

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