It’s a 110-degree afternoon and the new city-run, 24/7 heat relief site in downtown Phoenix is crowded with people. One man naps with his head on a table while his dog rests at his feet. Another man tries to keep his four small children entertained. Most visitors who come to this site are homeless.
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari is getting a tour of the facility from Phoenix Fire executive chief Tim Kreis.
He notes that the city’s expansion of cooling center hours in 2024 resulted in a 20% drop in heat-related emergency calls from the previous year, in spite of hotter temperatures.
“It’s been tremendously successful,” Kreis tells Ansari. “We connect to every person who walks in, and we offer other services if they want to take advantage of them.”
“This is amazing,” Ansari says.
Ansari is a Democrat in her first term in Washington. She is visiting the heat relief site to highlight three bills she is sponsoring that focus on extreme heat. One of the bills would create a federal grant program that could help fund cooling centers like this one.
“I think it’s imperative for any Arizona elected official to make this a priority” Ansari says.
Before being elected to Congress last year, Ansari served on Phoenix City Council. So she knows the city doesn’t have the budget to run heat relief sites like this forever. For the past few years, Phoenix has paid for heat relief mostly with federal pandemic aid. That money runs out in 2026.
According to the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, 608 people across the Valley died from heat-related causes last year amid record-shattering temperatures. At the time, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego held a press conference to call for the federal government to send more help.
“Phoenix cannot do this alone,” Gallego told reporters in October 2024. “I’m hopeful one silver lining about the terrible heat numbers from this summer is that we will realize this is a national issue; it is not just a Phoenix issue, and we will finally see Congress pass legislation.”
This year, Arizona’s four Democrats in Congress seem to be responding to those concerns by introducing several bills related to extreme heat.
For example, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly are backing a bill to study the economic impact of deadly heat waves. Kelly said that would be an important first step toward helping boost local heat relief budgets.
“It’s a lot of folks that show up in the emergency room – that leads to lost wages, breakdown in infrastructure – and we don’t measure the financial costs of this,” Kelly told KJZZ. “It’s hard to make the right decisions when you don’t have the data.”
And Arizona Democrats are not only focused on legislation. Congressman Greg Stanton has also launched a new Extreme Heat Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Obviously, in Arizona we face it more intensely than anywhere else in the country,” Stanton said, “but extreme heat is hitting all different parts of the country, and we need to have a response plan to deal with this.”
But what is the likelihood that these efforts will gain traction in a Republican-controlled Congress?
“I don’t have much optimism,” said Stacy Pearson, Democratic political strategist with Lumen Strategies.
Arizona Democrats have introduced similar bills during the past few summers, and those didn’t become law. This year, Republicans have even stronger majorities in Congress.
And it’s not just that Democrats’ proposals might not get off the ground. The Trump administration is pushing many of the same issues in the opposite direction as it seeks to cut costs.
As Kelly and Gallego propose to study the economic impact of heat, for example, the Trump administration plans to stop counting the costs of other climate disasters.
And as Democrats try to get Arizonans more help paying for air conditioning through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Trump administration has laid off the LIHEAP staff and has proposed eliminating the program entirely.
Pearson said Democrats will have to focus more energy on stopping Trump’s agenda than on advancing their own.
“I’ve got more faith in their ability to play defense,” Pearson said.
If Democrats can’t advance legislation on heat, Pearson said, Stanton’s new Extreme Heat Caucus could be more effective for bringing attention to the topic.
“I think there’s some longevity there,” Pearson said.
Stanton’s caucus co-chair, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, is a Republican, which Pearson said could also be beneficial.
“The more Republicans that Congressman Stanton recruits, who fundamentally agree that 120 degrees is hot, is helpful,” Pearson said.
Pearson does not think legislation is a lost cause. She said just because the bills don’t get anywhere this year doesn’t mean they won’t in future years. In the meantime, she said, Democrats are trying to show consistency on an issue that makes a measurable impact on the lives of Arizonans.
“We literally have people dying in our streets,” Pearson said.
Ansari agrees that messaging is important.
“We’re going to do our very best, but the most important piece of this right now is to show the urgency,” Ansari said.
For now though, it’s unlikely a new source of federal funding for Phoenix’s heat-relief sites will arrive anytime soon. And the question of how Phoenix will pay for these efforts in future summers remains.
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