[Senate Hearing 118-253]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                        S. Hrg. 118-253

                  EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF EXTREME HEAT
                      AND WEATHER ON TRANSPORTATION

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                              COMMITTEE ON

                      ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________


                           SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

                               __________


  Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works






                 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]





        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov


                               ______
                                 

                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

55-259PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2024











               COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                  THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, Chairman
          SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia, Ranking Member

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont             CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island     MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 PETE RICKETTS, Nebraska
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan            ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
MARK KELLY, Arizona                  DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
ALEX PADILLA, California             LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
JOHN FETTERMAN, Pennsylvania

               Courtney Taylor, Democratic Staff Director
               Adam Tomlinson, Republican Staff Director










                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                           SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
                           OPENING STATEMENTS

Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware..     1
Capito, Hon. Shelley Moore, U.S. Senator from the State of West 
  Virginia.......................................................     3

                               WITNESSES

Hondula, David, Ph.D., Director, Office of Heat Response and 
  Mitigation, City of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona..................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
    Responses to additional questions from:
        Senator Markey...........................................    17
        Senator Kelly............................................    21
Parsons, Travis, Director, Occupational Safety and Health, 
  Laborers' International Union of North America.................    26
    Prepared statement...........................................    29
    Responses to additional questions from Senator Markey........    34
Flannery, Aimee, Ph.D., P.E., Global Principal, Transportation 
  Risk and Resilience, Jacobs, Solutions and Technologies........    38
    Prepared statement...........................................    40
    Responses to additional questions from Senator Markey........    50










 
                 EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF EXTREME HEAT
                     AND WEATHER ON TRANSPORTATION

                              ----------                              


                     WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

                                       U.S. Senate,
                 Committee on Environment and Public Works,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m. in 
room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Thomas R. Carper 
(Chairman of the Committee) presiding.
    Present: Senators Carper, Capito, Fetterman, and Mullin.

          OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS R. CARPER, 
            U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE

    Senator Carper. Good morning, everybody. I welcome our 
witnesses.
    I was just joking with the Ranking Member, she starts her 
morning with a distinguished panel, and I understand she has 
dinner tonight, maybe, with Lady Gaga. So you are the opening 
act, how is that? We will see how that goes.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. One of my all time favorite pictures is the 
picture of Tony Bennett, who died not long ago, there was a 
great shot of him a couple of years with Lady Gaga. And I 
thought, I want to grow up and be just like Tony Bennett. You 
have that chance.
    All right. Good morning, everybody. I call this hearing to 
order.
    Today's hearing comes at a time when the topic of extreme 
heat is top of mind for literally millions of Americans. Just 
last week, Washington, DC, our Nation's capital, where we 
gather today, experienced its hottest day on record. 
Temperatures reached 99 degrees with a heat index between 100 
and 105 degrees.
    That record followed a summer of sweltering heat waves 
across large parts of our country. For example, Phoenix, 
Arizona, home to one of our witnesses today, saw temperatures 
of 110 degrees or hotter every day from June 30th to July 30th. 
I am going to say that again. When I read it, I didn't believe 
it. But Phoenix, Arizona, home to one of our witnesses today, 
saw temperatures of 110 degrees or hotter every day from June 
30th to July 30th, and even hotter days in August.
    In fact, this summer was our planet's hottest on record, 
according to data from the European Union Climate Change 
Service.
    Extreme heat contributes to dry conditions that make areas 
more susceptible to wildfires that burn out of control. Just 
last month, our Nation witnessed the heartbreaking loss of 
lives, homes, and businesses due to the unprecedented wildfires 
in Hawaii. For years we have seen the same thing happen across 
western States including California and Oregon and others.
    Wildfires can have wide ranging impacts on transportation, 
from road closures and travel disruptions due to excessive 
smoke, to the weakening of highways and bridge structures from 
the heat generated by those fires.
    These are not unrelated or isolated events. Extreme heat 
also means warmer oceans, which lead to stronger and more 
destructive hurricanes. Currently, we are in the middle of an 
active hurricane season that has already resulted in damaging 
storms that have unleashed wind, rain, and storm surges in 
Florida, in the Southeast, and on the West Coast.
    In my own State of Delaware, coastal storms and flooding 
have resulted in the closure of parts of State Route 1, the 
major north-south highway in our State, which links communities 
along our East Coast.
    The frequency, intensity, and duration of more intense heat 
waves, wildfires, and extreme weather across the United States 
have only gotten worse in recent years due in large part to 
human caused climate change. In turn, this has put our Nation's 
transportation infrastructure, our work force, and our 
travelers at a greater risk of harm.
    Extreme heat can impact our transportation infrastructure 
in many ways. For example, when temperatures reach triple 
digits, roadways can buckle, resulting in costly damage that 
disrupts travel and leads to unsafe road conditions. In fact, 
it is estimated that the additional road maintenance and 
replacement costs caused by extreme heat could reach a total 
cost of $26 billion nationwide by 2040.
    And it is not just roads and highway infrastructure that 
experience the effects of extreme heat. High temperatures can 
cause rail tracks to shift, delaying or slowing rail service, 
something that as a frequent rider on Amtrak between DC and 
Delaware I have experienced just in the last week. Last summer, 
a commuter train in the San Francisco Bay area derailed when 
the temperature of the tracks exceeded 140 degrees.
    When talking about extreme heat, we can't forget that 
heat's effect on transportation infrastructure directly impacts 
the people who use it as well as those who build and maintain 
it.
    We know that rising temperatures have serious implications 
for our health. Thousands of people in the United States are 
hospitalized each year due to heat. Many of these 
hospitalizations are workers who are exposed to dangerously 
high temperatures on the job.
    Today, we will hear about the impacts that urban heat 
islands have on the people who live in cities, including many 
who live in low income and disadvantaged communities. We will 
also hear about the hazards faced by our transportation 
construction work force, whose jobs require them to be outside, 
building and repairing our roads, highways, and our bridges 
even when temperatures soar to record highs.
    In the years ahead, extreme heat will continue to threaten 
our infrastructure and our public health, even as we work to 
transition toward a clean energy future. Fortunately, solutions 
are available to help transportation agencies better address 
the effects of extreme heat. Cities like Phoenix, Arizona, and 
Los Angeles, California, are turning to innovative materials, 
including cooler pavements, which give off less heat than 
traditional pavement.
    Communities are also deploying strategies to reduce the 
urban heat island effect by planting more tree cover to help 
cool sidewalks and transit stops and reduce the overall heat 
intensity in dense, highly paved places. In Delaware, we have 
already planted 80,000 trees since the launching of a program 
initiative called the Tree for Every Delawarean Initiative. We 
launched that, I think, in 2020.
    I am proud that our Committee has taken a leadership role 
in implementing policies to address extreme heat and weather at 
the Federal level. In the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 
Inflation Reduction Act, we created new programs including the 
Healthy Streets Program, the PROTECT program, and the 
Neighborhood Access and Equity Program to help States and local 
governments better address this challenge.
    With that, my hope is that today's hearing will help to 
further our Committee's understanding of the nexus between 
extreme heat and transportation. I also hope that our hearing 
today will bring greater awareness to the work that is being 
done across our country to address this increasingly urgent 
problem.
    Today, we are privileged to be joined by a panel of three 
witnesses who will testify about the many ways in which cities, 
the labor force, and the private sector are working, and in 
many ways working together, to make our communities more 
resilient to extreme heat and weather events.
    I would say, just before introducing our Ranking Member, 
Senator Capito, when we talk about issues like these, extreme 
weather and extreme weather events, I am a guy who always looks 
for opportunity in adversity. That opportunity would include 
the creation of jobs, good paying jobs. That would be part of, 
as we address these issues today, I am always looking for that: 
How do we create a more nurturing environment for job creation, 
and then in all this adversity, and there is a lot of it now 
around the planet, how do we somehow grasp and create some 
economic opportunity for people to work?
    With that, I am delighted to be sitting next to Senator 
Capito, as I do often, and to turn this over to her.
    Senator Capito.

        OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, 
          U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

    Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
calling today's hearing and for your ongoing commitment to 
bipartisanship in the Committee's business.
    I also want to give a warm welcome to our Committee 
witnesses, and I understand one of my fellow native West 
Virginians, Mr. Parsons, who is from Fort Ashby, West Virginia. 
Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise with us 
today.
    If we look back at the first 8 months of 2023 our country 
has confronted several types of disasters. We have seen 
catastrophic floods in California and Vermont, tornadoes in 
Arkansas and Mississippi, violent hailstorms in Texas, a 
hurricane that made landfall in Florida, flash floods in my 
home State of West Virginia, and those horrible, massive fires 
in Hawaii.
    The consequences of extreme weather are felt in both urban 
and rural communities year round. With the many challenges that 
our States face in improving their transportation 
infrastructure, I am very proud of this Committee's bipartisan 
work to provide them with the funding they need to address 
these challenges in the IIJA. And as with varied extreme 
weather events show, there is not a one size fits all approach 
to addressing infrastructure and resiliency.
    As my colleagues have heard me say many times, maintaining 
flexibility within the Federal Aid Highway Program is 
absolutely crucial to ensuring that States can tackle their own 
unique transportation needs head on. I am pleased that the 
programs and policies we established in the IIJA have adhered 
to this principle. So, as we continue with the oversight of the 
implementation of the IIJA, I will work to ensure that States 
retain that flexibility provided to them within the law.
    One of the IIJA's new programs that is especially relevant 
to today's hearing is the Promoting Resilient Operations for 
Transformative, Efficient, and Cost Saving Transportation, or 
the PROTECT program. As the acronym suggests, this program 
provides a renewed focus on improving the resiliency of our 
transportation infrastructure to withstand extreme weather.
    Specifically, it gives formula funding to all States and 
directs the Secretary of Transportation to also award 
competitive grants to eligible entities. The funding can be 
used to carry out planning activities, build evacuation routes, 
and reinforce existing highways and bridges, among other 
eligible uses.
    The program is important because it is a new tool we have 
to ensure we are preparing for the future, and not just 
responding to the aftermath of extreme weather. To do otherwise 
would be a failure in our stewardship of Federal taxpayer 
dollars, and could delay timely disaster response and recovery 
efforts.
    I noted earlier that the PROTECT program places a renewed 
focus on resiliency. That is because resiliency is not a new 
consideration for States and other non-Federal partners as they 
design and construct highways and bridges to best serve our 
citizens. Infrastructure owners were already incorporating 
resiliency into asset management strategies, planning 
documents, and project development. I am glad to see that the 
work that we did in the IIJA is furthering these efforts.
    As we were developing the IIJA, one of my other policy 
priorities was improving the environmental review and 
permitting process. I am pleased that we were successful in 
this area. The IIJA included a robust set of provisions to make 
this process more efficient, without sacrificing environmental 
protections, and included codifying the One Federal Decision 
policy for surface transportation projects.
    Our ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from 
extreme weather is directly related to whether States can get 
their projects through the morass of the Federal environmental 
review process, and secure the necessary permitting approvals. 
Faced with challenges like extreme weather, we cannot afford to 
have a process that adds years to project timelines, and drives 
up costs, especially given the current inflationary 
environment. This issue continues to be an area of focus for 
me.
    I was pleased to see that further improvements to the 
project delivery process were included in the Fiscal 
Responsibility Act. However, I am troubled that the 
Administration is not faithfully implementing that law, and 
instead seems intent on adding more hurdles to infrastructure 
permitting.
    Recently, the CEQ proposed phase two of its NEPA 
implementing regulations, which they advertise as implementing 
the Fiscal Responsibility Act provisions. But additional 
changes in that proposal, which have no textual basis in the 
Fiscal Responsibility Act, seek to transform environmental 
reviews from information gathering processes into tools that 
slow projects that the Administration does not support, and 
many times they don't support because of political reasons.
    The Administration is proposing to layer on political bias 
and favor certain types of projects at the expense of others. I 
hope that the Administration corrects course on these issues 
based on stakeholder feedback, and adheres to the FRA's plain 
text.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about 
the on the ground efforts to address the effects of extreme 
weather on our transportation infrastructure.
    I thank the Chairman again, and I yield back my time.
    Senator Carper. Thank you, Senator Capito.
    I think next I am going to take a minute to introduce each 
of our witnesses, then we will lead off with David Hondula.
    Has anybody ever mispronounced your name, Mr. Hondula? 
Never?
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. All right, we will try not to do that 
today.
    Our lead off witness today is Dr. David Hondula, who is the 
Director of the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation for the 
city of Phoenix, Arizona.
    Have you always lived in Arizona?
    Mr. Hondula. Ten years, Senator.
    Senator Carper. OK.
    In his current role, Dr. Hondula helps coordinate and 
implement programs to protect people from dangerous summer heat 
and improve their quality of life. He is a member of the 
American Meteorological Society of Board of Environment and 
Health, a faculty member at ASU.
    My wife is a graduate of ASU, Appalachian State University.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. The other ASU. But anyway, Dr. Hondula is a 
member of the American Meteorological Society's Board of 
Environment and Health, and faculty member of ASU School of 
Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Dr. Hondula also has 
authored more than 90 peer reviewed articles, book chapters, 
and technical reports related to extreme heat and public health 
and urban climatology. He earned a Ph.D. in environmental 
sciences from the University of Virginia in 2013.
    Where did you grow up?
    Mr. Hondula. In New Jersey, Senator.
    Senator Carper. All right.
    Next, we are going to hear from Travis Parsons, who is the 
Director of Occupational Safety and Health for the Laborers' 
Health and Safety Fund of North America. Mr. Parsons has over 
25 years of experience working in safety, and has worked at the 
Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North American since 2002, 
is that right?
    Mr. Parsons. Yes, sir.
    Senator Carper. All right.
    In addition to his work for the Laborers, he is Vice 
President for the Labor Division of the National Safety 
Council, where he sits on the board of directors among other 
leadership positions. Mr. Parsons is a native of West Virginia.
    Tell us where you were born.
    Mr. Parsons. A little small town called Fort Ashby, West 
Virginia, over in the eastern panhandle.
    Senator Carper. All right. I know you have heard of that, 
more than a few times, probably been there more than a few 
times.
    Senator Capito. Yes.
    Senator Carper. A native of West Virginia, graduate of West 
Virginia University, who played Penn State in football a week 
or two ago, right?
    Mr. Parsons. Ouch.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. And the next week, Penn State played the 
University of Delaware. Really big ouch.
    Mr. Parson. Yes, and we actually played three Pennsylvania 
teams in a row. We played Duquesne last week, and we play Pitt 
this coming weekend.
    Senator Carper. We have Duquesne coming to Delaware for a 
match in a week or so. As I told the President of the 
University of Delaware, don't schedule Penn State. Once is 
enough.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. Mr. Parsons, football aside, we are 
delighted that you are here today.
    Last but not least, we will hear from Dr. Aimee Flannery, 
who is Global Principal for Transportation Risk and Resilience, 
at Jacobs, Solutions and Technologies. Dr. Flannery has an 
extensive background in researching, developing, and 
implementing projects and policies to improve the resilience of 
our Nation's transportation infrastructure. Previously, she has 
held positions at the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 
Applied Engineering Management Corporation, and for a time was 
an associate professor at George Mason University, not too far 
from here.
    Dr. Flannery earned her Ph.D. in civil engineering from 
Penn State.
    [Laughter.]
    Ms. Flannery. Apparently, the infamous Penn State.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. We are glad to see her. I understand she is 
the mother of at least one daughter, who is sitting over her 
left shoulder.
    We are watching your daughter to see if her lips move when 
you speak.
    We welcome all of you. We thank each of you for your 
willingness to testify before our Committee today. We are now 
pleased to hear your testimony, starting with Dr. Hondula.
    Dr. Hondula, you are recognized for 5 minutes. Take it 
away.

  STATEMENT OF DAVID HONDULA, PH.D., DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HEAT 
   RESPONSE AND MITIGATION, CITY OF PHOENIX, PHOENIX, ARIZONA

    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, 
Senators.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Capito and 
Senator Kelly for the invitation to join you today. It is an 
honor to be here with my fellow witnesses to share what we are 
learning about how to manage and mitigate heat in the hottest 
large city in the country, Phoenix, Arizona.
    As the Chairman noted, this summer has been an especially 
challenging one for us. We set a new record with 55 days total 
of those temperatures of 110 degrees or higher.
    All across the country, local governments like ours have 
begun to recognize that there are serious deficiencies in 
planning for, mitigating, and managing extreme heat. In an 
effort to address this gap, the city of Phoenix launched the 
Nation's first publicly funded local government office focused 
on heat, the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation that I am 
proud to lead.
    Our new office works with many local partners to coordinate 
and improve programs that help protect people from the dangers 
of heat and ensure that our cities and communities are cooler, 
safer, and more comfortable. Improving our cities' resilience 
to extreme heat requires that we engage across all levels of 
government and across all sectors of society, and it requires 
us to significantly invest in communities that have been 
historically underserved. These are communities that have older 
transportation assets that are more likely to be strained by 
the heat, communities where people have fewer transportation 
options, and often must walk in the heat. And these are 
communities that simply have fewer trees and less shade, places 
we might call shade deserts.
    I would like to share some examples from Phoenix that 
highlight how we are working to address heat challenges in the 
transportation sector. You might be aware, Senators, that the 
transportation sector contributes to making our cities hotter 
for several reasons. One of those reasons is that the 
transportation sector uses a lot of land. Pavement accounts for 
more than 30 percent of the land area of Phoenix, and pavement 
is a significant contributor to urban heat, due to its low 
reflectivity of solar energy.
    The city of Phoenix is a national leader in the testing and 
implementation of technologies that alter that reflectivity, 
the reflectivity of the road surfaces, through our Cool 
Pavement Program. This program has now reached more than 100 
miles of city streets that have received a light gray solar 
reflective coating.
    The city and Arizona State University have been 
collaborating to produce an independent, rigorous, and open 
evaluation of the Cool Pavement Program. We have found that the 
coating is highly effective at reducing the road surface 
temperature, the temperature you would feel if you put your 
hand directly on it. That temperature has been reduced by up to 
12 degrees Fahrenheit.
    With this reduction, the underlying asphalt itself 
experiences less thermal strain. So the coating may reduce long 
term asphalt maintenance needs and costs.
    We also need to think critically about how heat impacts the 
experience of our transportation users. Residents tell us all 
the time that heat impacts decisions they make about where they 
will go and how they will get there. And these decisions of 
course in turn impact commerce, labor, education, health care 
access, and so much more.
    Phoenix is accelerating its investments to make more shade 
available for transportation users. One investment is called 
our Cool Corridors Initiative, through which we are striving to 
achieve 200 miles in the city with at least 60 percent shade 
coverage for pedestrians.
    Phoenix is continuing to closely monitor all Federal 
funding opportunities to scale up and accelerate our ability to 
address heat through the transportation sector. And we are so 
appreciative of Federal resources included in the IRA and 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help us do so.
    The city worked with Senator Kelly to help create the 
Healthy Streets Program in the BIL, which could fund, for 
example, Cool Pavement projects. Phoenix has also applied to 
the EPA's Government to Government Environmental Justice grant 
program that was created in the IRA. Our proposal there is to 
create a model cool corridor in a shade desert in south 
Phoenix. This cool corridor would integrate a wide range of 
cooling features, including shade and freely accessible chilled 
drinking water that would more fully support neighborhood 
mobility and connectivity.
    Shade and heat mitigation elements are also included in 
Phoenix's 2022 RAISE award, and our recent proposal to the 
PROTECT grant program.
    We respectfully ask that the Federal agencies and Congress 
continue to work to ensure that formula and discretionary 
programs include heat response and heat mitigation initiatives 
as project eligibilities. What is especially important to us is 
that the notices of funding opportunities and project 
evaluation criteria clearly and appropriately acknowledge how 
heat related initiatives can be competitive for funding.
    Moving forward, continued work to integrate heat planning 
and thinking across all scales of government sectors and 
agencies will be critical to help pursue community health and 
prosperity. Our experience in Phoenix is that our 
transportation infrastructure and systems are very important 
focal points as we work to build a more weather ready and heat 
ready Nation.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Hondula follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Senator Carper. Dr. Hondula, thank you so much for leading 
us off.
    Mr. Parsons, you are recognized for 5 minutes. Go right 
ahead.

STATEMENT OF TRAVIS PARSONS, DIRECTOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND 
     HEALTH, LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA

    Mr. Parsons. Thank you very much, and thank you for having 
me here this morning.
    Good morning, everybody, good morning, Chairman Carper and 
Ranking Member Capito, and esteemed members of the Committee.
    As pointed out, I proudly serve as the Director of 
Occupational Safety and Health for the Laborers' Health and 
Safety Fund of North America. From here on I will just say 
Laborers, because that is a mouthful. We serve LIUNA and its 
memberships, which is the Laborers' International Union of 
North America, their signatory employers, and affiliates.
    I am also a proud member of LIUNA Local 11, which is DC, 
Maryland, and Virginia, or some people refer to it as the DMV, 
having nothing to do with motor vehicles.
    My primary areas of expertise and focus are industrial 
hygiene, hazard awareness and correction, ergonomics, infection 
control, and overall job site safety. As was pointed out by 
Senator Capito, I am from a small town in West Virginia 
originally, in the eastern panhandle, although I have lived 
here for 21 years in DC, and I am raising my family here.
    Being from that small town in West Virginia, that instills 
in me a deep concern for the well being of blue collar workers, 
especially for their safety and health on the job, at the 
workplace. I am very grateful for the opportunity to address 
this vital issue of heat that affects our country's work force 
and the health and safety of its laborers.
    I will start with a little description around the problem, 
as Senator Carper did a very good job of framing this, so I 
will try to be brief. Nationwide, we face a sobering reality 
that far too many workers lose their lives every year due to 
extreme heat, and many more are suffering from heat related 
illnesses and injuries, some chronic. The urgency of this issue 
cannot be overstated. Extreme heat is on the rise, with record 
breaking heat waves affecting millions of Americans every year.
    It is an alarming trend: Every 1 degree Celsius increase in 
temperature leads to a 1 percent rise in workplace injuries. 
One percent doesn't sound like much, but that is a very 
significant concern when we have over 160 million workers in 
this country. That is a lot of people affected by heat.
    Just last month, as the Chairman pointed out, we witnessed 
Hawaii grappling with heat, devastating wildfires, Louisiana 
declaring a heat emergency and tropical storms reaching 
unprecedented locations such as California, Texas, and Puerto 
Rico. It is evident that extreme weather and heat are becoming 
an unfortunate and enduring reality.
    Despite the alarming images of hurricanes, tornadoes and 
floods, it is essential to note that extreme heat claims more 
lives than any other weather related phenomenon. The symptoms 
of heat stress can strike suddenly, often unnoticed, and it is 
too late to intervene. Prevention is the strongest defense.
    Prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures strains the 
heart, the lungs, the kidneys, and may lead to chronic health 
conditions. I just read recently in my research it is also 
being tied to respiratory problems, that go along with the 
environmental problems that the wildfire causes, with the heat.
    Survivors of severe heat related illnesses bear long term 
health burdens including muscle and organ damage, chronic 
kidney disease, and exacerbation of preexisting conditions, 
such as diabetes and cardiac disease.
    Now let's talk a little bit about the cost. The economic 
impact of extreme heat is profound. Employers failing to 
implement basic heat safety measures cost our economy hundreds 
of billions of dollars every year. That is both in direct and 
indirect costs. These costs encompass absenteeism, reduce 
productivity, worker turnover, overtime costs, and creates 
workers' compensation premiums, liability expenses, and 
equipment damage due to a rise in workplace incidents.
    Some may argue that providing additional rest breaks 
increases payroll expenses for employers. However, safer 
working conditions means fewer injuries and illnesses, 
resulting in lower health care costs, reduced workers' 
compensation claims, and less lost time from work. The old 
adage of ``an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'' 
rings true to me when I think of these numbers. Investing in 
heat related illness prevention outweighs the cost of 
neglecting it. Increased breaks not only protect workers from 
heat stress but also enhances productivity, saving employers 
money in the long run.
    The notion of a conflict between worker safety and business 
profitability is a false dichotomy. Ensuring that heat hazard 
safety measures are in place in the workplace is in everyone's 
best interest.
    Who faces the burden when you think about heat and a lot of 
these weather related incidents? I think of the workers out 
there, especially blue collar workers. Some of the most 
affected workers include those in construction, landscaping, 
and roadwork, members of LIUNA. It is imperative that we 
improve the tracking of injuries of heat related illness and 
the impact on our work force.
    Tragically, low income workers and workers of color bear 
the brunt of these consequences. In construction alone, African 
American workers experience heat related deaths at a rate 51 
percent higher than average, and a death rate for Mexican born 
workers is a staggering 91 percent higher.
    Workers' physical and mental capacities decline 
significantly as heat and humidity rise. Research reveals that 
worker productivity drops 3 percent for every degree Celsius 
when it is above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In the end, it is not 
about the temperature scales, it is about protecting workers.
    Now I want to talk about some solutions. We possess the 
knowledge, the science, and background to mitigate heat related 
illness in this country. While many employers adopt these 
strategies, regrettably, not all do. Embracing the mantra of 
water, rest, shade is a strong place to start.
    These measures, which are well documented and easy to 
implement, reduce the risk of heat related incidents. Workers 
require access to cool drinking water and adequate cool down 
breaks in shaded, air conditioned areas. If you want to ask 
what temperature, 80 degrees and below in these areas of 
breaks.
    Moreover, the implementation of work acclimatization 
protocols such as a comprehensive written program, training for 
supervisors and front line workers, emergency response 
procedures, and diligent recordkeeping are all vital components 
of a comprehensive heat related illness prevention program.
    The right to a safe workplace is a fundamental human right, 
and exposure to excessive heat is one of the most pressing 
hazards facing workers today. Tens of thousands of workers 
suffer from heat illness, injuries, and fatalities yearly in 
the United States. Employers bear the responsibility to protect 
those workers. The people who build this Nation, provide our 
food, and deliver essential goods deserve every safeguard 
available.
    In conclusion, it is past time to protect workers from heat 
related illness, injury, and death. We must act decisively. The 
burden of occupational health related illness on our economy is 
substantial and growing. Neglecting these hazards of excessive 
heat for workers carries significant financial consequences for 
employers.
    Thank you for your attention and commitment to addressing 
this pressing issue. I am open to any questions and discussion 
you may have on this critical matter.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Parsons follows:]

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    Senator Carper. Mr. Parsons, thanks very much for that 
testimony.
    Before we introduce Dr. Flannery, my maternal grandmother 
and her husband, my grandfather, lived right outside of 
Beckley, in a little town called Beaver, also known as Daniels, 
right by Shady Springs High School. I remember when we were 
little kids, we would go back and visit in the summer. One of 
my grandmother's favorite sayings was, an ounce of prevention 
is worth a pound of cure. As little kids, we were just 
wondering what she was talking about. But it has finally become 
clear to me, the wisdom of my grandmother and her husband as 
well.
    I just had to give her a shout out for introducing me to 
that phrase a long, long time ago. A lot of wisdom there.
    All right, Dr. Flannery, you are on. Your daughter is here 
watching over your shoulder. So do your best.

  STATEMENT OF AIMEE FLANNERY, PH.D., P.E., GLOBAL PRINCIPAL, 
   TRANSPORTATION RISK AND RESILIENCE, JACOBS, SOLUTIONS AND 
                          TECHNOLOGIES

    Ms. Flannery. Good morning, Chair Carper and Ranking Member 
Capito, and members of the Senate Committee on Environment and 
Public Works. My name is Aimee Flannery, I am the Global 
Principal of Transportation Risk and Resilience for Jacobs 
Solutions.
    I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today as 
you examine the effects of extreme heat and weather on 
transportation systems, and how the private industry are 
helping our community partners. I would also like to thank the 
American Council of Engineering Companies for their leadership 
in making my testimony possible.
    As mentioned, my career to date has provided me the 
opportunity to serve as an educator of tomorrow's civil 
engineers at George Mason University where I was a tenured 
member of the faculty. I have also worked for a small woman 
owned business, have been a business owner myself, and have had 
the privilege of working at the U.S. Department of 
Transportation Office of Research in the Office of the 
Secretary prior to joining Jacobs.
    As America's largest engineering firm, Jacobs is investing 
in people and technology to address resilience challenges 
alongside communities across the Nation. My experience 
incorporating climate resilience began a decade ago this week 
while working for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
    In September 2013, a stalled cold front clashed with a 
warm, monsoonal air mass from the south and dropped 20 inches 
of rain on northern Colorado. The extensive rainfall and 
duration resulted in flow surges, damaging and destroying major 
sections of roadway, along with access bridges and retaining 
walls. Many residents were cut off with no access out of the 
Big Thompson River Canyon.
    The operational response involved over 19,000 evacuations 
and 2,000 air rescues. The event resulted in nine deaths and 
caused nearly $4 billion in damages to public and private 
infrastructure, including damages to 50 major bridges and 485 
miles of roadway.
    Changes to the FHWA Emergency Relief Program in May 2013, 
just prior to the September floods, allowed the Colorado 
Department of Transportation to pursue more resilient designs 
to address major damage to some of their facilities. One 
specific area known as Horseshoe Curve on the U.S. 34 corridor 
was destroyed by flooding in 2013, and had been previously 
destroyed by flash flooding in 1976. These changes to the 
emergency relief program allowed for a final design that 
provides for a more resilient corridor, with access for first 
responders during emergency events. And it is anticipated to 
minimize damage from similar future events.
    In 2013, addressing extreme weather events and climate 
stressors were just emerging as a new area of concern within 
the highway industry. Today, nearly 2 years since the passage 
of IIJA, the transportation industry has for the first time 
dedicated funding to address resilience from natural hazards.
    The PROTECT program alone provides over $8 billion in 
formula and grant funding opportunities for proactive 
management of system vulnerabilities. State agencies and their 
partners have been working diligently to develop resilience 
improvement plans and prioritize lists of projects for their 
highway systems.
    We at Jacobs are pleased to be working with several States 
represented here on the Committee, including Delaware, West 
Virginia, and Maryland, on their resilience improvement plans.
    A few challenges that I have heard from professionals that 
I work with include the need to increase training for their 
staff to understand awareness of resilience strategies, to 
better understand economic assessment methodologies for 
resilient design alternatives, to better understand best 
practices for incorporating resilience into design, and to 
better understand Federal aid requirements of new programs.
    Incorporating climate resilience into our standard practice 
has yet to be fully integrated, but change is happening. To 
that end, the future transportation reauthorization efforts 
from this Committee to spur the incorporation of resilience 
into practice could include supporting the industry to better 
understand risk tolerance and what is an acceptable level of 
resilience for the range of facilities that our industry 
maintains. These criteria may support potential changes to 
design standards and material specifications to address climate 
resilience in the future.
    As a former educator, the need to integrate infrastructure 
resilience into our undergraduate and graduate degree programs 
is also necessary to ensure that the next generation of 
transportation engineers and planners are well versed in these 
concepts.
    I thank you for your time, and I look forward to your 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Flannery follows:]

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    Senator Carper. Thank you for your testimony.
    I will start it off, then yield to Senator Capito.
    I think it was a 2021 study that found that taking a 
proactive approach to adapting U.S. roads and roadways to 
climate change could save the economy up to $470 billion, 
billion with a B, annually by the year 2100. As I have said 
more than a few times in this room, climate change is an issue 
we can no longer afford to ignore. I think most people have 
bought into that.
    That means investing in our transportation infrastructure 
and making upgrades to protect against extreme heat and weather 
before infrastructure is damaged, rather than just continuing 
to make the same repairs over and over again.
    I will start off with a question for Dr. Hondula. Would you 
please describe for us how Phoenix is taking a proactive rather 
than a reactive approach to extreme heat?
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you for the question, Chairman Carper.
    I think it is critical to be proactive in our efforts to 
prepare, and that preparation really shows up at the minutiae 
of operating local government in the procurement processes, in 
our negotiations, in our engagement with industry, thinking 
about how products work, what the product design specifications 
are.
    Just to give you one example from Phoenix, in our city we 
are concerned about the impact of heat on the electronic 
systems in the field that operate our traffic systems and 
streetlights. That might include diminished lifetimes from LED 
bulbs. Our traffic signal controller cabinets have fans in them 
that provide some cooling. When we are shopping for products on 
the market, building procurement processes, we need to be sure 
that heat is a factor in that process.
    Senator Carper. As a follow up, are there any key lessons 
learned for other cities about the benefits and challenges to 
proactive adaptation?
    Mr. Hondula. Chairman Carper, thank you, it is an excellent 
question.
    Unfortunately, I think we are still very much in the early 
stages of learning what it means to build heat resilient 
communities. Phoenix, as I noted, is at the forefront of 
deploying Cool Pavement technology. We are learning as we go, 
as we deployed 100 miles where it is most----
    Senator Carper. A hundred miles out of how many miles?
    Mr. Hondula. Many thousands. So just a small fraction.
    Senator Carper. So it is a start.
    Mr. Hondula. It absolutely is a start.
    Learning which products bond correctly to the road 
material, what any trade offs might be in terms of pedestrian 
thermal comfort or safety. I think all of our communities 
across the country are still learning how to become more heat 
resilient.
    I think an important role the Federal Government is 
beginning to play and can continue to play is convening cities 
together to share what we are learning and ensure we are 
applying best practices as quickly as possible. As you noted, 
there is a strong sense of urgency to ensure we are ahead of 
the game here.
    Senator Carper. All right. Good, thank you.
    Mr. Parsons, as you described in your own testimony just a 
few minutes ago, transportation worker productivity decreases 
significantly as heat levels increase. Transportation agencies, 
transportation contractors, and labor organizations all have a 
stake in finding solutions to ensure the construction work 
force can continue to safely and efficiently do their jobs 
building and maintaining our Nation's roads, our highways, and 
our bridges.
    Would you please elaborate on what your union is doing to 
work collaboratively with the private sector, with government 
agencies, and other stakeholders, to respond to the effects of 
extreme heat on construction workers?
    Mr. Parsons. Yes, thank you for that question, Mr. 
Chairman.
    Yes, we work collectively, we are a labor management 
cooperation fund, so we work with our signatory contractors for 
worker training, we visit job sites, help contractors write 
programs, especially small and medium size contractors. That is 
one way we help, is by assisting our signatory employers.
    We also work on a Federal level nationwide on worker 
advocacies for better protections for workers with every agency 
that plays in the worker safety and health space. Whatever 
agency affects workers, whether it is Federal Highway, Federal 
OSHA, EPA, we work hand in hand with them to increase 
protection for workers on our jobs.
    Senator Carper. OK, thank you.
    A question now for, it could be for Dr. Hondula or Dr. 
Flannery.
    Dr. Flannery, why don't you take the first shot at it.
    I am proud that our Committee has played a leading role in 
the enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 
Inflation Reduction Act, both of which include new authorities 
to help make our transportation system more resilient to 
extreme heat and extreme weather.
    Would you, Dr. Flannery, please take a moment to discuss 
how programs like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 
Healthy Streets Program and so forth, the RAISE grant program, 
describe how these programs and others will help States, will 
help transportation agencies and local government take more 
proactive action to make their transportation infrastructure 
more resilient to hazards like extreme heat and flooding?
    Ms. Flannery. The one thing that the PROTECT program does 
provide is for the first time dedicated funding to address 
things like extreme heat and extreme weather events. For years 
we have known as an industry that we have needed to address 
these things. But we have a very vague system that is aging, 
and so there is lots of need and potentially not a lot of 
dedicated funding.
    So the PROTECT program does provide for the first time 
dedicated funding, and has spurred within the agencies a need 
to begin to address resilience, understanding where the 
vulnerabilities are, and beginning to address those with 
prioritized lists of projects.
    Senator Carper. I am going to yield now to Senator Capito 
and Senator Mullin as well. I think we have one of our Senators 
from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who is on his way here. 
We look forward to his arrival and others as well.
    When we come back, Dr. Hondula, I am going to ask the same 
question Dr. Flannery has answered, I am going to turn to you 
and ask that question.
    For now, Senator Capito.
    Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Dr. Flannery, I mentioned in my opening statement how 
important I think to not have a one size fits all regulatory 
environment coming down from Federal Highways. You mentioned in 
your opening statement that a variety of States, one of which 
is my home State, that you have seen action on. How important 
is it to reject that one size fits all and give the flexibility 
that each State--obviously, West Virginia's needs are not the 
same as Arizona, as he tells the story. How important is that?
    Ms. Flannery. Sure, happy to answer.
    One of the challenges with a one size fits all is it limits 
our understanding of the range of threats that do affect 
highway assets. For example, we talked about things that 
happened in Colorado with extreme rainfall and monsoonal air 
masses. Those aren't quite the same threats that would affect 
the State of Florida, for example, where you have a lot of 
hurricanes and sea level rise.
    So understanding the range of threats that affect assets is 
really important, and they vary greatly across the country. But 
also understanding the maturity of data systems within 
agencies. Some agencies are a little bit further ahead of the 
curve, some are a little bit behind. So having sort of a very 
rigid program might be challenging for those who aren't quite 
ready to jump into the boat fully to embrace the programs. 
Flexibility is very important.
    Senator Capito. As you are seeing now, the PROTECT program 
is rolling out. Are you finding that the flexibility is in that 
program?
    Ms. Flannery. Yes, I think so.
    Senator Capito. Good.
    Let me ask this question. You just mentioned this, that 
State DOTs are tackling this in different ways and at different 
rates of speed. How could they focus on to get their efforts to 
move forward more quickly, and how can the Federal Highways 
Administration help them with that?
    Ms. Flannery. The one thing we do benefit from as an 
industry is Federal Highways and the Transportation Research 
Board and AASHTO have been aware of this challenge that we have 
to our system and have been developing guidance and research 
over the past several years on the topic. Now we are into the 
dedicated funding sources to actual implementation. We are 
seeing the hiring of new staff, we are seeing the expanded 
duties of staff to begin to address resilience. And I think 
that is helping tremendously for States to begin to accelerate 
implementation.
    So they are looking for opportunities, in particular, in 
West Virginia for example we are looking at opportunities 
throughout the life cycle of projects and throughout the agency 
to actually engage staff with these resilience concepts. So 
whether it be maintenance and operations all the way through to 
design, there is an opportunity to engage and to include 
resilience in the decisionmaking.
    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    Dr. Hondula, let me ask you, I was interested to hear about 
the Cool Pavement. You described that in your opening 
statement. Just curious, how do you think they are going to be 
reapplied? It is a new concept, I guess, are you just it 
experimentally, or are you planning to expand that?
    Mr. Hondula. Thanks, Senator Capito. As I noted, we have 
been very proud of our work to evaluate the Cool Pavement 
Program with university researchers. But as you note, we still 
are in the early stages. Our street transportation department 
would say that we have moved beyond the pilot stage, we have 
seen sufficient success in terms of how the material is bonding 
to the road surface, how residents are perceiving, how it is 
performing in real world conditions, which we can't learn from 
a laboratory.
    So we have upgraded it into a full scale program. But we 
are continuing to learn about how well it will perform over 
time. One concern, for example, is that the reflectivity will 
degrade as cars drive on the surface, as it weathers.
    Senator Capito. You mean it wears down?
    Mr. Hondula. It will become less reflective as it become 
dirty. The same as if we put a piece of paper on the road it 
would become dirty as well.
    So we need to understand how the long term performance 
evolves to know what the right scale of investment is, at what 
pace, and see if we are achieving those cost savings that are 
possible with the reduced thermal wear and tear of the asphalt.
    Senator Capito. Keep us up on that. That is very 
interesting.
    Mr. Parsons, you did a good job describing the challenges 
of the heat on our workers. I think we want to make sure we 
have as many laborers working as possible in safe and healthy 
conditions. One of the ways we can do that, I think, is to get 
permitting reform, which I mentioned in my opening statement. I 
know you all as an organization have been supportive of 
permitting reform. I didn't know if you wanted to make a 
statement on that in terms of how it impacts the number of 
workers and how many workers are actually engaged since we have 
these permit delays. Is this an area of concern for you?
    Mr. Parsons. Yes, thank you for the question, Senator 
Capito.
    Absolutely, permitting, while important, should never get 
in the way of progress. We are all about workers going to work 
safely, and also workers going to work as soon as they can, 
shovels in the ground, rubber on the road. So we never want to 
see permitting get in the way of progress or active work.
    As a matter of fact, I have actually seen permitting get in 
the way of some safety interventions on roadways. I will give 
you a prime example. Everybody knows what a Jersey barrier is, 
a concrete barrier on the road that protects workers from the 
traveling public. That will be specced in, it will be paid for, 
even in a low bid environment in the Federal highway system. 
And then permitting will come through and take it out, and 
there are workers out there exposed to hazards because of that 
permitting.
    Senator Capito. Wow.
    Mr. Parsons. So absolutely, anything we can do to 
streamline permitting, although sometimes important, especially 
for safety, as long as it is safe out there and we can 
streamline it and not hold things up, absolutely, I agree with 
you.
    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    Senator Carper. Thanks, Senator.
    We have been joined by Senator Fetterman, our neighbor to 
the north of Delaware. Delaware and Pennsylvania used to be the 
same State, and we gave them their independence about 200 years 
ago. They seem to have done pretty well since then, too well 
when it comes to playing football.
    Senator Fetterman, you are recognized. Welcome aboard.
    Senator Fetterman. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
    I am deeply concerned for the welfare of our transportation 
work force in Pennsylvania, of course. Mr. Parsons, these 
workers are forced to work in an extreme heat without Federal 
safety standards. What lessons can we take from the States that 
have set heat standards, or those that have eliminated worker 
protections?
    Mr. Parsons. Thank you for that question, Senator. What I 
will say to that is, we need codified heat protections across 
the country. There is only, in this whole country, I think 
there are 44 States that do not have a Federal OSHA rule. There 
are six States that have somewhat of a version of it, and there 
are three that have a permanent rule.
    So without mentioning all those States and messing that up, 
California kind of set the way a long time ago, and Oregon and 
Washington State jumped on board last year after the extreme 
weather and heat related conditions.
    We like those rules in place. We like them codified, best 
practices. In the construction world, unfortunately, there is a 
lot of good actors out there that do the right thing, 
fortunately, but unfortunately sometimes smaller contractors 
either don't have the means or the ways to implement programs 
unless they absolutely have to.
    So we have to set the standard straight across the board, 
have codified rules for everyone, and have minimum criteria to 
base our worker protections on.
    Senator Fetterman. Thank you.
    Of course, extreme weather events, particularly flooding 
for our transportation infrastructure in Pennsylvania, are 
really wreaking havoc. Dr. Flannery, can you walk us through 
why it is so important that States and agencies have a 
consistent source of Federal emergency relief funding that they 
know will be there into the future?
    Ms. Flannery. Thank you, Senator.
    One of the things that agencies need in terms of the 
emergency relief program and some of the changes I mentioned 
earlier in my opening have allowed for the use of resilient 
designs post-disaster. We have seen changes within the ER 
program that have been very beneficial. And I think States are 
doing the best that they can with the limited dollars they have 
to address the needs of their systems, of their asset 
management programs. Sometimes they just don't have the ability 
to get to those needs before these major events occur.
    So continual funding of the FHWA Emergency Relief Program 
is essential to maintain system operations.
    Senator Fetterman. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Chairman, I cede my remaining time. Thank you.
    Senator Capito [presiding]. Thank you.
    Senator Mullin.
    Senator Mullin. Thank you, and thank you everybody for 
being here.
    Dr. Flannery, first of all, thank you for being here. I 
sure appreciate your expertise on this. In your testimony, you 
mentioned the importance of State DOTs maintaining flexibility 
to accomplish greater returns on infrastructure investments 
that cater to unique transportation needs. As we know, one size 
doesn't fit all, right? What is good for New York maybe isn't 
actually the best idea for States like Oklahoma.
    Can you give us a few examples of projects that you have 
worked on to improve resiliency, and as a result have withstood 
the extreme weather for specific designs?
    Ms. Flannery. Sure. I will tell you a little bit about a 
project that we did in Colorado. We had a major rockfall, 
rockslide event that occurred on the I-70 corridor that shut 
down the corridor for nearly 2 weeks. One of the things we did, 
working with the Federal Highway Administration and the 
Colorado Department of Transportation, was to look for 
resilient alternatives, how could we avoid this type of 
shutdown of a major interstate, east-west corridor in the State 
of Colorado in the future.
    We researched and investigated. There was some new 
technology in terms of rockfall netting that was available. 
There were some other things that we could do in terms of 
monitoring and making the public aware if these events occurred 
in the future, in terms of warning devices.
    Working with FHWA and the division office in Colorado, as 
well as the Colorado Department of Transportation, we worked to 
ensure that in the future events are hopefully avoided, and if 
they do occur, that we can clear them quickly and reopen the 
facility.
    Senator Mullin. What year was that rockslide on I-70?
    Ms. Flannery. The I-70 in the Glenwood Springs area?
    Senator Mullin. Yes, what year was that?
    Ms. Flannery. That would have been 2016, if I remember 
correctly.
    Senator Mullin. I think you are correct, because I got 
stuck in that. We got rerouted and had to go way around through 
the canyon. Then we had to go through a game refuge or a 
national park. It was an absolute mess. I was pulling a 
trailer, too, so that even made it worse.
    Ms. Flannery. Not fun.
    Senator Mullin. I appreciate you getting that fixed for us.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Mullin. Streamlining infrastructure projects is 
obviously, it is a must, it is not a need, it is a must. And if 
we want to integrate infrastructure resiliency into our 
Nation's transportation sector, to do this there is obviously 
some imperative for the State DOTs to provide information that 
is required for them. If I understand it correctly from our 
State DOT, that information isn't always easy to access. Would 
you agree with that?
    Ms. Flannery. As I mentioned in my opening, I was a 
professor at George Mason University. One of the things I think 
our industry desperately needs is the continual training of 
staff. For example, I went to school nearly 30 years ago. I was 
not taught about climate resilience. I did not teach climate 
resilience when I taught at George Mason University. So we have 
a whole bunch of practitioners that are 10, 20, 30 years out of 
school who never heard these concepts.
    Working with organizations like ASCE, for example, the 
American Society of Civil Engineers, the Transportation 
Research Board, FHWA, and training outlets is really important. 
They hear the term; they recognize the need for it. But what 
does that mean when you put it into practice, I think is still 
a little bit of a gap. We are working on that, and there is 
lots of training available. But it is going to take a bit for 
it to kind of make its way down through the layers of staff and 
those that can actually impact resilience.
    Senator Mullin. Well, this is me being a politician, you 
don't look like you were in school that long ago. Your daughter 
is way too young for that. That is me being a good politician.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Mullin. Going back to that, is there something that 
Congress needs to do to maybe enact, is there legislation, is 
there an understanding we need to put into a bill, is there 
something we can do to help with that?
    Ms. Flannery. I fall back on this term that I use, models, 
metrics, and methods. I often say to people, if I say to you, 
make something more safe, what does that mean? In our world, 
that means fewer crashes. If I say to you, make something more 
resilient, you kind of know what I mean, like don't fail and 
recover quickly. But what does that mean in terms of design or 
in terms of operations or in terms of maintenance practices?
    So we don't yet have standard methods to sort of address 
resilience or fold it into design. We don't quite fully 
understand what resilience investments do in terms of return on 
investment. So things like fundamental research to understand 
how assets perform under a range of threats would be really 
ideal. The development of understanding of risk tolerance and 
what is the acceptable level of resilience on the range of 
systems that we operate is also something that I think could be 
helpful for the industry.
    Senator Mullin. Great. Thank you so much.
    Senator Carper [presiding]. Dr. Flannery, in my last 
question, I directed a question to Dr. Hondula. I said when it 
was my turn again, I was going to ask the same question of you.
    Both of you mentioned the PROTECT Program that we created 
in Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
    I think Dr. Hondula, you also mentioned the Healthy Street 
Program and the RAISE grant program as well.
    My question, Dr. Flannery, is would you take a moment as 
well to discuss how these programs and others will help States, 
transportation agencies, and local governments take more 
proactive action to make the transportation infrastructure more 
resilient to hazards like extreme heat and flooding?
    Ms. Flannery. For the past several years, State departments 
of transportation have been implementing asset management 
programs and performance management programs. They have begun 
to look at climate resilience along those lines of how long can 
assets last, are they deteriorating more quickly, do we need to 
repair them after extreme events and things like that.
    The PROTECT Program, the thing that it does is provide a 
dedicated stream of funding, so States are now a little bit 
more comfortable thinking about how I might address resilience 
from soup to nuts, from planning all the way through design. 
They see that there is an opening in terms of continual 
funding, there is an opportunity to make the investments that 
they have known about, but maybe didn't necessarily have the 
funding to actually dedicate at the time.
    So they are very excited about it. I actually just left a 
conference of 25 State DOT representatives on the topic of 
resilience in Wilmington, Delaware.
    Senator Carper. When was that? When were you in Wilmington?
    Ms. Flannery. Last night, and I am heading back tonight.
    Senator Carper. Me too.
    [Laughter.]
    Ms. Flannery. They are very excited, and the enthusiasm 
within the industry is very palpable, and very fun to actually 
be a part of the industry right now.
    Senator Carper. That is great, thank you.
    Let me turn to Mr. Parsons again. In your testimony you 
talked about the burden of extreme heat on transportation 
workers, and the fact that many of the folks that you and 
others represent come from low income and in some cases 
disadvantaged communities. These construction workers are on 
the front lines of adapting our transportation system to 
extreme heat events, yet in doing so they are also bearing the 
burden of extreme heat on their own health and well being.
    What type of health impacts from extreme heat are you 
seeing on our transportation construction work force? What are 
some of the effective strategies for addressing these negative 
impacts?
    Mr. Parsons. Some I mentioned lead to chronic diseases. But 
the more immediate effect is what is called heat stroke, we 
have all heard of heat exhaustion, and we have all experienced 
dehydration. But if a worker gets heat stroke, it is usually 
too late. Oftentimes, the symptoms aren't there.
    So we need to put in place requirements to have something 
as simple as water, rest, and shade. What I mean by that is so 
much water per hour, a place to take a break, mandatory breaks, 
at least 15 minutes every 2 hours. And that break area should 
be shaded, and it should also have some kind of cooling 
mechanism, whether inside or outside. It doesn't do any good if 
it is not cold air.
    So the types of injuries you experience are exacerbation of 
people who already have existing conditions, like diabetes, it 
affects your heart, it affects your kidneys because of 
dehydration. That answers the first part of your question.
    You would think it is human rights on the job, but in 
today's world, we just don't have that for our workers. And 
when it comes to the low income workers or other workers of 
color, oftentimes they are also placed in the most dangerous 
jobs, and they don't speak up for themselves. They may or not 
be documented workers, they may be lower paid.
    So they are worried about losing their jobs more than 
anybody, so they don't speak up for safety on the jobs, another 
reason why they are more vulnerable.
    Senator Carper. All right. Thank you for that.
    Dr. Hondula, I want to come back to you for my next 
question. Based on your experience in running the first 
municipal office in the country, I believe, dedicated to 
addressing heat, what advice would you have for other cities 
that are struggling with extreme heat and are looking for 
solutions?
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you for the question, Chairman Carper.
    I think our experience is that it is critical within the 
structure of local government and arguably other scales to 
clearly articulate where the leadership is in the organization 
for heat, which department and which people there are 
responsible for ensuring heat is a consideration in every 
relevant policy or program.
    There are tens of thousands of large and small cities, 
large and small towns across the United States, not everyone is 
going to be positioned or have the right model to have an 
entire office in local government. But I still think it is 
possible in every city to designate a heat leader in the 
organization, so when people have questions, whether it is 
residents or people from within the organization, they know 
where to go. That has been very helpful for our experience in 
the city of Phoenix.
    Senator Carper. Good.
    Anybody else, any other panelist want to comment on that? 
What advice would you have for other cities that are struggling 
with heat and are looking for solutions? Any thoughts? If you 
don't that is fine, but if you do, you are welcome to respond. 
No? OK.
    Follow up question for Dr. Hondula. How can the Federal 
Government better assist States in their efforts to stand up 
these offices?
    As a recovering Governor, I used to be Governor of Delaware 
for 8 years. I loved being Governor. There are 14 of us here in 
the Senate who are former Governors. We were all part of the 
National Governors Association in those years, and part of the 
National Governors Association is a center for best practices 
that Tommy Thompson and I were active in standing up when he 
was Governor of Wisconsin.
    The idea is for States to have a forum, a vehicle, to share 
ideas that work. So I always hold that out there as a way for 
States to help one another, including transportation issues.
    Dr. Hondula, how can the Federal Government better assist 
States in their efforts to stand up these offices? Any more 
thoughts that you have, please proceed.
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Chairman Carper.
    I would like to echo a sentiment we hear from Dr. Flannery 
that education is a really important role that the Federal 
Government can play in supporting resilience efforts at the 
local scale for heat or other hazards. We have been really 
proud to work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration as part of their efforts to coordinate cross-
Federal agency engagement on heat through the National 
Integrated Heat Health Information System.
    Phoenix has been proud to be one of four cities 
participating in a heat and equity pilot program. We are in 
dialogue on a regular basis with Las Vegas, Charleston, and 
Miami, learning about our experiences. We all have a different 
approach to heat, heat manifests differently in our four 
different cities, and we have a different governance model as 
well.
    I think agencies like NOAA, like the CDC and others can be 
very helpful in building heat literacy at the local level, 
understanding the design vocabulary, the specifications. What 
is the difference between air temperature and surface 
temperature, for example? These are critical concepts that our 
local leaders need to have to ensure that our hazard mitigation 
plans are thoughtful and comprehensive in addressing heat, and 
that heat shows up in other planning processes and in the 
budget processes in a meaningful way to help our residents.
    Senator Carper. Good, thank you.
    Another question, I don't mean to be picking on you, Dr. 
Hondula, but we will give Mr. Parsons and Dr. Flannery a few 
more shots as well. This summer's widespread extreme heat has 
been really staggering, including a month, as we talked to 
earlier, of temperatures over 110 degrees in your own city of 
Phoenix. Academic scientists affiliated with world weather 
attribution found that the maximum heat experienced in July in 
the western United States would have been virtually impossible, 
virtually impossible, without human caused climate change.
    A question of you, Dr. Hondula, would you talk with us a 
bit about how climate change is affecting the work that you do 
in Phoenix to address extreme heat?
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Chairman Carper, for the question.
    In part, I think it created this job. I think one of the 
motivating factors for our mayor and city council to create the 
country's first local office focused on heat was our 
observation that temperatures have been rising in the Southwest 
and indeed all across the country, and that they are expected 
to continue to rise.
    Other motivating factors were the recognition that heat 
does have serious public health consequences, as my fellow 
witnesses have provided testimony regarding, and that there is 
this governance gap for heat. There has been too much ambiguity 
regarding where in the organization responsibility falls for 
managing heat.
    In the city of Phoenix, we see climate change and extreme 
heat as closely coupled topics. We hear from our residents all 
the time that they are concerned about how it has been getting 
warmer and what that means for the future. We hear stories 
about going outside, playing in the evenings in bare feet from 
residents who have been in Phoenix for multiple generations. 
But they say they don't see the same happening with their 
children today, and they are concerned about what the future 
looks like.
    So I think the projections of a warmer future are 
motivating our work very strongly every day. I would argue that 
the work is already important. Even if projections were for a 
cooler future, we still are not doing a good enough job meeting 
the heat challenge today. But the fact that the projections are 
for a warmer future adds more motivation and a sense of urgency 
to our work.
    Senator Carper. All right. Thank you.
    Dr. Flannery, another question of you. What more should the 
Federal Government do to help States prioritize the resiliency 
of our transportation infrastructure?
    Ms. Flannery. As I mentioned earlier, we still have a need 
for some fundamental research. And what I mean by that is 
understanding asset performance under a range of threats and a 
range of magnitude. For example, how might a culvert perform 
under a rainfall event of some particular magnitude versus 
another.
    Also taking into consideration the age of the asset. As we 
know, our infrastructure can be upwards of decades years old. 
Understanding how they may deteriorate or fail under different 
conditions is something that we still have a lot of need to 
better understand.
    Also listening to some of the testimony about heat, some of 
the emerging research, understanding the deterioration of 
pavements under these increases in temperature is something 
that we still have yet to incorporate into our pavement 
management programs. It could be something, again, fundamental 
research that places like Turner Fairbank and some of our 
university transportation centers would be very valuable.
    Senator Carper. All right, good.
    I am going to be talking about football here. I don't want 
to mention baseball, but they have a term in baseball that is 
called, when a pitcher is holding a ball, releases the ball, 
there is a certain way of throwing a pitch. The pitcher can 
telegraph the pitch. I am going to telegraph a pitch. I have a 
couple of questions to ask of you. I am going to give you the 
chance of, maybe a question you were not asked, which you would 
like to have been asked. Just tell us what that question would 
be, and then answer it. That is how we will wrap up right at 
the end.
    We have a lot of competition going on with hearings in the 
Senate today. There is a large forum that is going on in the 
building next door, right here in the Capitol, on AI, a major 
forum on AI. So we were maybe hoping that a couple other 
colleagues could join us, but there is a lot going on. That 
does not diminish at all the importance of this hearing, so we 
are deeply grateful for your participation.
    Dr. Hondula, your written testimony mentions the effect of 
electric vehicles on reducing heat intensity. I am told that 
something like 30 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that 
we are creating in this country comes from the cars, trucks, 
and vans that we drive. Maybe another 25 percent comes from our 
power plants that produce the electricity that we use, and 
maybe another 20 percent comes from the manufacturing 
operations of asphalt, steel mills, and stuff like that.
    Would you talk with us a little bit about the effect of 
electric vehicles on reducing heat intensity, please?
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Chairman Carper.
    Phoenix is very proud to be leading national efforts toward 
vehicle electrification. In fact, the term Electric Valley 
circulates in our local conversation in Phoenix because of the 
progress we have made.
    Separate from the greenhouse gas emissions that you noted, 
Chairman Carper, vehicles are also a very important part of the 
urban heat story, because they directly emit waste heat into 
the environment. We have all had that experience of standing 
next to a car and feeling the heat radiating off of it. It is 
estimated that vehicles add up to 40 percent of all heat added 
to the urban environment from energy consumption. Other sources 
might include air conditioners, for example.
    So vehicles are a really important part of the story of why 
our cities are hotter than their surrounding areas. If we can 
have vehicles that emit less waste heat, which electric 
vehicles would, we could potentially be achieving cooler cities 
in the future.
    We are certainly trying to make an effort to lead by 
examples as a local government, converting our city's vehicle 
fleet to alternative fuel sources. We are making good progress 
doing so with our light duty vehicles, and we are in the early 
stages of transitioning heavy duty vehicles, including the bus 
fleet. When we talk about resilience to extreme heat, having 
electric and other alternative fuel source heavy duty vehicles 
that work well in the heat is still an area where we are 
looking for more market innovation.
    Our bus fleet transition plan includes plug in battery 
electric buses and hydrogen fuel cell electric buses. We are 
pursuing a complete transition to 100 percent zero emission 
buses by 2040. We have been using Federal funding to help with 
this transition, including more than $16 million in FTA low and 
no emission grant funding as part of the BIL. We are also 
appreciative of the new Charging and Fueling Infrastructure 
Grant program created in the BIL that will continue to expand 
the deployment of EV charging and other types of alternative 
fuel stations.
    The transition to alternative fuels can be a transition 
toward vehicles emitting less heat into our already hot cities.
    Thank you, Chairman.
    Senator Carper. Thank you.
    Maybe one more for you, and then we will get each of you to 
ask your own questions.
    Dr. Hondula, what has been the biggest challenge you face 
in trying to reduce shade deserts across the city of Phoenix?
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Chairman Carper.
    Eliminating and reducing these shade deserts is certainly a 
priority for our office. Of course, one of the challenges is 
simply the availability of resources to do so. Eliminating a 
shade desert requires more than just handing a tree to a person 
and hope that it will survive. We need to be very comprehensive 
in thinking about the complete basket of strategies and 
solutions that can allow for more shade.
    We are certainly appreciative of additional resources. The 
new Urban and Community Forestry Program we hope will help us 
get there. We have a couple of large proposals in there.
    But I think the biggest challenge that we experience, and 
other cities would experience, is that there are locked in 
legacy effects of previous infrastructure design that constrain 
where and how we can move forward. There are only so many 
places in the city that are easy to modify right now to add 
more shade. But the places where we really need shade require 
more significant overhaul of the streetscape, of our 
infrastructure systems. And of course, that becomes more 
expensive.
    We need to break those patterns that we have been locked 
into and be strategic and thoughtful how we do so. And we know 
that we will be needing the Federal Government's assistance to 
get there in all of our underserved communities.
    Senator Carper. All right.
    Either of the other witnesses want to comment on that 
question? All right.
    Before we close, this is a chance for you to ask maybe a 
question you wish you had been asked but were not, then respond 
to that question.
    Dr. Flannery, would you lead this off?
    Ms. Flannery. Sure.
    One of the things I think that as an industry we are still 
struggling to understand is the rightsizing of assets. What I 
mean by that is, does it make sense to build your way out of 
some areas. In some ways, there may be areas in your system 
that might not make sense to re-invest in. It may make more 
sense to move the facility or abandon the facility.
    I think there is still a lot of research to be done in that 
area, and a lot of support to State agencies as they struggle 
with some of these areas that are challenging within their 
system that experience repeat damage. Understanding risk 
tolerance is also something that we as an industry could use 
help with.
    Those are things that I think FHWA and AASHTO, the 
Transportation Research Board, could help with.
    Senator Carper. All right. Thanks very much.
    Mr. Parsons, please. A question, if we were sitting in 
different seats, and I was out there, and you were asking a 
question, what question would you have asked?
    Mr. Parsons. Maybe two quick ones. I would address 
something that has already been mentioned but maybe expand on 
it. One of them is from my esteemed fellow witnesses here. I 
wrote a couple of notes down for myself.
    We really need to work on interagency cooperation between 
all of our Federal programs, Federal Highway, EPA, OSHA. A lot 
of times there is a punting back and forth on whose 
jurisdiction is what. We really need to work on better 
cooperation between those agencies for worker protection. So I 
think you brought up interagency cooperation.
    Along those same lines, another thing I wrote down was 
understanding of Federal aid programs, especially in the era of 
IIJA, BIL, whatever you want to call it nowadays. We have an 
opportunity right now as a country to improve our roads, to 
improve our resiliency, and to improve our worker protections 
like no other. There is a lot of money out there. We need to 
educate people on how to use that money, how to access that 
money, and how to level the playing field for employers alike.
    Then the one last thing I would like to say, this whole one 
size fits all, I agree, one size does not fit all across the 
country, especially when it pertains to heat. When it comes to 
heat, you are talking about relative humidities that are 
different, different temperatures, wind, personal protective 
equipment, type of work you do. But you need to have a 
fundamental ground that you start with when it comes to worker 
protection, such as water, rest, shade.
    So while it is not one size fits all, we have to do 
exposure assessments on our jobs, it is actually a requirement 
for the employer to do that across the country. They have to do 
exposure assessments for every hazard, including heat. So it is 
not one size fits all, it is an exposure assessment with 
fundamental core values and protocols to start with.
    Senator Carper. All right, thank you for that.
    Dr. Hondula.
    Mr. Hondula. Thank you, Chairman Carper.
    Perhaps two questions that might have been asked, or that I 
would be interested to ask somebody sitting in this seat. In 
the Phoenix area there has been some mixed messaging in the 
media coverage of the Cool Pavement Program, including a 
headline that Cool Pavement makes people hotter.
    So a question might be, why are these conflicting messages 
in the media about the Cool Pavement Program? If I may take a 
moment just to explain the state of our understanding thus far 
about Cool Pavement.
    Senator Carper. Yes, please do.
    Mr. Hondula. The reason that cities are pursuing or might 
consider pursuing Cool Pavement is that pavement is hot, and if 
we can make a hot surface less hot, that should produce a 
benefit in terms of cooling the city.
    But like every heat mitigation strategy, there is the 
potential for unintended consequences. If we plant a tree, for 
example, in the wrong place, it could disrupt above or below 
ground utilities, which could have unintended disruption of 
service.
    With respect to Cool Pavement, what our experience in 
Phoenix has been is that because we are reflecting more solar 
energy away from the surface, a person who is standing directly 
above it, on the road surface when the sun is out, might 
experience more heat stress than over traditional coating. The 
sunlight has to go somewhere, and if it is reflected into the 
human body, that could be adverse for the person standing on 
that street.
    This does not mean we shouldn't deploy Cool Pavement, but 
it means we need to be very strategic in where we are putting 
Cool Pavement, avoiding places like playgrounds or plazas where 
pedestrians tend to congregate. In our cities, there are 
thousands and thousands of miles of pavement where people are 
not congregating. Those are the places that make the most sense 
for more reflective surface, rather than these settings of 
congregation.
    That is how we have had this mixed messaging emerge in our 
media coverage of Cool Pavement in Phoenix. That was one 
question.
    And if I may entertain a second, Chairman Carper.
    Senator Carper. Yes, you may.
    Mr. Hondula. I think it could be argued that our cities and 
Federal Government are behind where we would like to be in 
managing heat. The question might be, why is that the case. I 
don't think we have adequately framed heat as a hazard like 
others. As you and my fellow colleagues here have noted, heat 
is a very consequential hazard for Americans in terms of the 
public health impacts, accounting by most metrics for more 
deaths every year than most other hazards combined.
    Yet when we look at lists in notices of funding 
opportunities, here are the hazards and disasters you can apply 
for money for, heat does not always appear on that list. In 
fact, heat is not yet included in the Stafford Act that shapes 
how FEMA can issue its response and hazard mitigation money to 
communities.
    I don't think it is just a matter of getting the word heat 
in the acts. We need to think about the mechanisms, the 
evaluation, the processes that will provide the right resources 
to communities. But it would be a terrific first start if we 
could see extreme heat start to appear on lists along with all 
the other hazards that are so consequential for Americans. We 
know that heat is consequential as well.
    Senator Carper. Good.
    I saw a couple of our witnesses nodding their head as you 
spoke. Do any of you want to add anything to what Dr. Hondula 
just said?
    Ms. Flannery. I was just going to say, this is something 
that we definitely need to study further in highway 
infrastructure, understanding material performance, 
understanding asset performance under those stressors of 
extreme heat. It is an area that we haven't researched very 
extensively to date, and certainly something that we need to 
invest in.
    Senator Carper. Thank you.
    Mr. Parsons.
    Mr. Parsons. I will just say I concur with that last 
statement, that we need more funding, available funding for 
heat as a hazard, for all of the above, for occupational and 
public health resiliency. And I forgot to mention that I loved 
your ``heat leader.'' In the construction world, we call that a 
competent person on a job site. But it is a heat leader, I 
wrote that down from your statements. Thank you.
    Senator Carper. Good. Thank you all.
    Before I do a little bit of housekeeping, let me just say, 
I have had the privilege of representing Delaware, which is 
about 90 minutes away by train from Wilmington to Washington. 
It is not all that hard, the trains start early in the morning 
and run into the night. I have been able to represent Delaware 
and serve Delaware and live in Delaware and work here and go 
back and forth.
    Usually when I am driving to the train station in the 
morning, I have an electric vehicle, it is really great, a lot 
of fun to drive. It also has a great music system. It is one of 
those deals where you can play radio stations or whatever, you 
can also make requests. I asked my music system to play an 
appropriate song for today's hearing, we kicked off the hearing 
this morning that Senator Capito may well be in a forum later 
today with Lady Gaga, who is quite a star in her own right.
    I asked the music system in my car to play a song called 
``The Heat is On,'' by Glenn Frye, who was one of the original 
Eagles. The heat is on, it has been on for a while, and it is 
likely to be on for a long while. The question is, what do we 
do about it? What do we do about it?
    As it turns out, here in the Congress, with the support of 
the Administration, we have done a lot about it.
    I announced a couple of months ago that I am not going to 
run for re-election next year. But I remind my colleagues and 
the constituents at home that I will continue to serve in the 
Senate until high noon on January 3rd, 2025. So I am going to 
be running through the tape on a lot of things that I still 
want to get done. One of those is to fully implement the 
provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, not just those 
that deal with roads, highways, bridges, ports, and rail and so 
forth, but also climate provisions. I want to make sure that we 
have fully implemented provisions in the Inflation Reduction 
Act that pertain to climate change.
    I mentioned earlier that if we can address climate change, 
including heat, in our State and all the States across the 
country, including Arizona, we can do it in a way that can 
create a lot of jobs, a lot of economic opportunity. If we are 
smart, we will do both.
    I am not that smart, but I have really smart people around 
me, and a lot of smart people who serve on this Committee. Our 
staffs, both on the majority and minority side, have looked 
across the country to find witnesses that are well suited to 
address this issue of heat, and they have come up with all of 
you, each of you. We are grateful that you have joined us. 
Thank you for the work that you do, thank you for imparting 
your wisdom and your thoughts to us today.
    Before we adjourn, a little bit of housekeeping. Senator 
Kelly has been trying to get here, he is in another hearing, 
and I think Senator Markey is in another hearing, and there is 
this big forum that is going on in AI, artificial intelligence, 
that a lot of people are participating in this morning. But 
that does not mean there is not strong interest in continuing 
to address the heat and the things that are causing the heat.
    Before we adjourn, a little bit of housekeeping. Senators 
may submit questions for the record until the close of business 
on Wednesday, September 27th. We will compile those questions, 
send them to each of you, our witnesses, and we will ask you to 
reply to us by Wednesday, October 11th.
    I am going to look over my shoulder and see from majority 
staff, minority staff, if there is anything else we are 
forgetting.
    All right. In our business, at this point in time, we say 
it is a wrap. We are grateful for the work you do, and for your 
sharing your wisdom with all of us today.
    With that, this hearing is adjourned. Thanks so much.
    [Whereupon, at 11:29 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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