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Biden looks to provide relief from extreme heat as record temperatures persist across US

FILE - With Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team in the background, a digital billboard updates the time and temperature as temperatures are expected to hit 116-degrees July 18, 2023, in Phoenix. President Joe Biden plans to announce new steps to address the extreme heat that has threatened millions of Americans, most recently in the Southwest. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - With Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team in the background, a digital billboard updates the time and temperature as temperatures are expected to hit 116-degrees July 18, 2023, in Phoenix. President Joe Biden plans to announce new steps to address the extreme heat that has threatened millions of Americans, most recently in the Southwest. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) FILE - With Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team in the background, a digital billboard updates the time and temperature as temperatures are expected to hit 116-degrees July 18, 2023, in Phoenix. President Joe Biden plans to announce new steps to address the extreme heat that has threatened millions of Americans, most recently in the Southwest. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, DREW COSTLEY and MATTHEW DALY / Associated Press 6 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) — With millions of Americans facing broiling heat across the Southwest, President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible, the White House says.

The announcement comes as nearly 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service, and high temperatures are expected to spread in the coming days to Midwest and Northeast.

Biden will be joined by the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the heat wave as “a difficult time” and said Biden was treating climate change with “the urgency it requires.”

The Democratic president is directing the Department of Labor to increase inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces such as farms and construction sites. He also wants heightened enforcement of heat safety violations.