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S. 341: Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act of 2025

119th Congress · introduced 2025-01-30 · Environmental Protection · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

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What does this mean?

Official title

Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act of 2025

Plain summary

Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act of 2025 This bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make grants to air pollution control agencies to support the development and implementation of programs that support local communities in detecting, preparing for, communicating with the public about, or mitigating the environmental and public health aspects of wildfire smoke and extreme heat. The EPA must establish a formula to distribute the grants among air pollution control agencies. The bill requires the EPA to establish four Centers of Excellence for Wildfire Smoke and Extreme Heat at institutions of higher education to research (1) the effects of smoke emissions from wildland fires and extreme heat on public health, and (2) the means by which communities can better respond to impacts from such conditions. Additionally, the EPA must begin to carry out research to study the health effects of smoke emissions from wildland fires and extreme heat; develop and disseminate personal and community-based interventions to reduce exposure to, and health effects of, wildland fire smoke emissions and extreme heat; increase the quality of smoke and extreme heat monitoring and prediction tools and techniques; and develop implementation and communication strategies. The EPA must also establish a competitive grant program to assist certain entities (e.g., a state) in developing and implementing collaborative community plans for mitigating the impacts of smoke emissions from wildland fires and extreme heat.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act of 2025

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] · 8 cosponsors

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Words on this page, explained (1)
Bill
A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Record fed-us-cong119-s341 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills