The HEAT Act expands federal disaster relief funding to cover damage to transportation infrastructure caused by extreme heat, which is currently not eligible for emergency assistance under existing federal law. The legislation amends the federal emergency relief program to explicitly include extreme heat and heat waves as qualifying disasters, allowing states and communities to access federal funds for repairing or reconstructing roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure damaged by thermal stress. The bill particularly addresses concerns about aging bridges—over 85,000 are more than 50 years old—which are vulnerable to heat-related damage like expansion joint failures and structural degradation. Additionally, the legislation requires the Transportation Research Board to conduct a one-year study examining the costs of extreme heat events on transportation systems and recommending better ways to track and measure this damage, while the Secretary of Transportation must issue a best management practices report on heat-related infrastructure safety within the same timeframe. This bill aims to help communities, especially rural areas with limited transportation alternatives, respond to growing heat threats to critical infrastructure.
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