HR4493-119

2. Findings Congress finds the following: In the past decade, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has declared or renewed a public health emergency 120 times. Of those declarations and renewals— 66 were related to extreme weather events; 14 were related to COVID–19; 2 were related to earthquakes; 2 were related to Mpox; 32 were related to the opioid crisis; and 4 were related to Zika. A preponderance of evidence shows that climate change is driving or, at a minimum, exacerbating extreme weather events and the transmission of infectious diseases. Therefore, climate change can be linked to more than half of all public health emergency declarations over the past decade. For this reason, entities (including the World Health Organization) have identified climate change as the most significant health threat of the 21st century. Yet the public health infrastructure of the United States remains woefully unprepared to meet the increased demand that climate-related public health crises continue to drive. The United States bears a moral and strategic responsibility to confront climate-related public health crises with the urgency such crises demand. To protect communities in the United States, and the most vulnerable individuals within such communities, the Nation must mobilize Federal resources, enable data sharing, exercise emergency authorities, and coordinate across agencies to build a public health system that is resilient to the intensifying threat of climate change.