Federal heat safety rule frozen as US records hottest summer — SkimNews
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- The White House indefinitely froze Biden-era heat safety regulations in January 2025 that would have mandated water, shade, breaks, training, and prevention plans for workers exposed to extreme heat.
- House Republicans have been pushing legislation to prohibit the Department of Labor from enacting any workplace heat protections, while Republicans in Florida and Texas have passed laws barring local governments from passing their own heat rules.
- The CDC recorded more than 2,300 heat-related deaths in the US across 2023 and 2024 combined — the highest toll in 45 years of records — while OSHA estimates over 550 workers die and nearly 28,000 are injured annually from heat exposure.
- A December 2025 study in Health Affairs found California's outdoor heat protections cut heat-related workplace fatalities by at least 33% since 2010, but only seven states currently have enforceable heat prevention standards.
- New York City issued heat protections for its workers in June through Deputy Mayor Julie Su and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, citing the federal pullback as the reason local action was needed.
- Workers at a Climate Week roundtable described brutal conditions including school kitchen temperatures clocked at 130F to 140F, with Local 372 executive vice-president Donald Nesbit saying, "If we were to lock our animals in a car with those same conditions, we would be arrested."
Why it matters: With the federal government stepping back from heat protections and Congress moving to block the Department of Labor from issuing any heat standard, the burden shifts to seven states and a handful of cities — leaving workers in the remaining 43 states with no enforceable heat safety rules during what the CDC has confirmed as the deadliest two-year stretch for heat deaths in 45 years.
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