II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 341
To 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.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY30, 2025
Mr. M
ERKLEY(for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. SCHIFF,
Mr. W
YDEN, Mr. SANDERS, and Mr. BENNET) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment
and Public Works
A BILL
To amend the Clean Air Act to establish a grant program
for supporting local communities in detecting, preparing
for, communicating about, or mitigating the environ-
mental and public health impacts of wildfire smoke and
extreme heat, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Smoke and Heat 4
Ready Communities Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-3
trator’’ means Administrator of the Environmental 4
Protection Agency. 5
(2) E
XTREME HEAT .—The term ‘‘extreme 6
heat’’ has the meaning given the term through a 7
rulemaking of the Administrator, in consultation 8
with the heads of relevant Federal agencies. 9
(3) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 10
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 11
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 12
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 13
(4) N
ATIVE HAWAIIAN ORGANIZATION .—The 14
term ‘‘Native Hawaiian organization’’ has the mean-15
ing given the term in section 6207 of the Elemen-16
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 17
U.S.C. 7517). 18
SEC. 3. SMOKE AND EXTREME HEAT-READY COMMUNITIES. 19
Part A of title I of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 20
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘SEC. 139. SMOKE AND EXTREME HEAT-READY COMMU-22
NITIES. 23
‘‘(a) D
EFINITION OFEXTREMEHEAT.—The term 24
‘extreme heat’ has the meaning given the term in section 25
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2 of the Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act of 1
2025. 2
‘‘(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Subject to the availability of 3
appropriations, the Administrator may make grants under 4
this section to air pollution control agencies to support air 5
pollution control agencies in developing and implementing 6
programs that support local communities in detecting, 7
preparing for, communicating with the public about, or 8
mitigating the environmental and public health aspects of 9
wildfire smoke and extreme heat. 10
‘‘(c) E
LIGIBLEACTIVITIES.—In carrying out a pro-11
gram described in subsection (b), an air pollution control 12
agency may use funds from a grant received under this 13
section for— 14
‘‘(1) activities related to the monitoring of, the 15
interpretation of, and communicating with the public 16
about past, present, and future data related to ambi-17
ent air quality conditions that are caused by wildfire 18
smoke and extreme heat; 19
‘‘(2) conducting community outreach in areas 20
that may be prone to poor air quality that is attrib-21
utable to elevated levels of particulate matter, ozone, 22
and other harmful components of wildfire smoke and 23
extreme heat; 24
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‘‘(3) the deployment of air quality monitoring 1
equipment in a manner that is sufficient to evaluate 2
an increased prevalence of poor air quality that is 3
attributable to elevated levels of particulate matter, 4
ozone, and other harmful components of wildfire 5
smoke and extreme heat; 6
‘‘(4) equipping public buildings with air filtra-7
tion systems that are capable of removing particu-8
late matter and other harmful components of wild-9
fire smoke and extreme heat from the air so that the 10
public buildings may serve as cleaner air spaces dur-11
ing wildfire smoke events and extreme heat events 12
and other poor air quality events; 13
‘‘(5) the purchase, storage, and distribution of 14
face masks and personal protective equipment, in-15
cluding N–95 filtering facepiece respirators, portable 16
air filtration systems, and other masks and equip-17
ment that are capable of removing or otherwise pre-18
venting the inhalation of particulate matter, ozone, 19
and other harmful components of wildfire smoke and 20
extreme heat from the air; 21
‘‘(6) subgrants or providing other financing to 22
private or other public entities with demonstrated fi-23
nancial need— 24
‘‘(A) to acquire protective gear; or 25
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‘‘(B) to carry out weatherization measures 1
to mitigate air infiltration; and 2
‘‘(7) such other activities that the Adminis-3
trator determines to be necessary to carry out the 4
purposes of this section. 5
‘‘(d) A
LLOCATION OFFUNDS.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 7
the Administrator shall establish a formula to dis-8
tribute grants under this section among air pollution 9
control agencies. 10
‘‘(2) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In establishing the 11
formula required under paragraph (1), the Adminis-12
trator shall consider— 13
‘‘(A) the vulnerability of communities with-14
in a State to wildfire smoke and extreme heat; 15
and 16
‘‘(B) the degree to which a State is prone 17
to poor air quality that is attributable to ele-18
vated levels of particulate matter from wildfire 19
smoke and extreme heat. 20
‘‘(e) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 21
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec-22
essary to carry out this section.’’. 23
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SEC. 4. RESEARCH ON WILDFIRE SMOKE AND EXTREME 1
HEAT. 2
(a) C
ENTERS OFEXCELLENCE.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 4
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis-5
trator shall establish at institutions of higher edu-6
cation (as defined in section 101(a) of the Higher 7
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))) 4 cen-8
ters, each of which shall be known as a ‘‘Center of 9
Excellence for Wildfire Smoke and Extreme Heat’’, 10
to carry out research relating to— 11
(A) the effects on public health, including 12
the health of outdoor workers, of— 13
(i) smoke emissions from wildland 14
fires; and 15
(ii) extreme heat; and 16
(B) means by which communities can bet-17
ter respond to the impacts of— 18
(i) emissions from wildland fires; and 19
(ii) extreme heat events. 20
(2) P
RIORITY.—In selecting institutions of 21
higher education (as so defined) at which to estab-22
lish a center under paragraph (1), the Administrator 23
shall give priority to institutions of higher education 24
(as so defined) that— 25
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(A) have established expertise with respect 1
to air quality or dedicated centers of air quality 2
research; 3
(B) have experience with relevant outreach 4
and extension work; 5
(C) have established relationships with rel-6
evant Federal, State, and local agencies, com-7
munity organizations, Native Hawaiian organi-8
zations, and Indian Tribes; and 9
(D) are located in an area that is economi-10
cally or environmentally impacted by wildfire 11
smoke or extreme heat. 12
(3) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 13
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Ad-14
ministrator to carry out this subsection $10,000,000 15
for fiscal year 2026 and each fiscal year thereafter. 16
(b) R
ESEARCH.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 18
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis-19
trator shall begin to carry out research— 20
(A) to study the health effects of— 21
(i) smoke emissions from wildland 22
fires; and 23
(ii) extreme heat; 24
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(B) to develop and disseminate personal 1
and community-based interventions to reduce 2
exposure to and adverse health effects of— 3
(i) smoke emissions from wildland 4
fires; and 5
(ii) extreme heat; 6
(C) to increase the quality of smoke and 7
extreme heat monitoring and prediction tools 8
and techniques; and 9
(D) to develop implementation and com-10
munication strategies. 11
(2) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 12
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Ad-13
ministrator to carry out this subsection $20,000,000 14
for fiscal year 2026 and each fiscal year thereafter. 15
SEC. 5. COMMUNITY SMOKE AND EXTREME HEAT PLAN-16
NING. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 18
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall es-19
tablish a competitive grant program to assist eligible enti-20
ties described in subsection (b) in developing and imple-21
menting collaborative community plans for mitigating the 22
impacts of smoke emissions from wildland fires and ex-23
treme heat. 24
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(b) ELIGIBLEENTITIES.—An entity that is eligible 1
to submit an application for a grant under subsection (a) 2
is— 3
(1) a State; 4
(2) a unit of local government (including any 5
special district, such as an air quality management 6
district or a school district); 7
(3) an Indian Tribe; or 8
(4) a Native Hawaiian organization. 9
(c) A
PPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a grant 10
under subsection (a), an eligible entity described in sub-11
section (b) shall submit to the Administrator an applica-12
tion at such time, in such manner, and containing such 13
information as the Administrator may require, which shall 14
include a plan to collaborate with a public institution of 15
higher education (as defined in section 101(a) of the High-16
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))) or other 17
research institution that— 18
(1) has established expertise with respect to air 19
quality or dedicated centers of air quality research; 20
(2) has experience with relevant outreach and 21
extension work; 22
(3) has established relationships with relevant 23
Federal, State, and local agencies, community orga-24
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nizations, Native Hawaiian organizations, and In-1
dian Tribes; and 2
(4) is located in an area that is economically or 3
environmentally impacted by wildfire smoke or ex-4
treme heat. 5
(d) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The Administrator 6
may use amounts made available to carry out this section 7
to provide to eligible entities described in subsection (b) 8
technical assistance in— 9
(1) submitting grant applications under sub-10
section (c); or 11
(2) carrying out projects using a grant under 12
this section. 13
(e) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 14
authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator to 15
carry out this section $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 16
and each fiscal year thereafter. 17
Æ
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