This bill would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop heat safety standards with the goal of preventing heat-related illness, injury, and death. Employers would be required to offer paid breaks, sufficient access to shade and cooling, and water or comparable hydration, as well as any other rules established as a result of the act's passage. And while OSHA's heat stress rulemaking process is already underway, this bill could help speed up the process.

The act is named for Asunción Valdivia, a farmer who died in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours in 105-degree heat. He is one of nearly 1,000 workers that have died from working in extreme heat between 1992 and 2022.