(Texas News Service) Parts of Texas have been suffering from dangerous heat, just after Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed a law to strip authority from cities, including their ability to mandate water breaks for construction workers.

Under House Bill 2127, city and county ordinances in some of the state's largest cities will be nullified as of September 1.

Nick Hudson, policy and advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Texas, said large domains of municipal governing -- from payday lending laws to regulations on rest breaks for construction workers -- are now in the hands of the Republican-controlled legislature.

"It is going to have a major impact on the abilities of local communities to govern themselves," Hudson contended. "Directly undermining employment, housing and workplace safety protections."

The bill, which affects eight industries, includes regulation of labor, finance and environmental standards. The bill's supporters said it eliminates a patchwork of local ordinances preventing local businesses from thriving, while critics countered it is an attempt to curb progressive policies in the state's largest, more liberal-leaning cities.

Hudson believes the same Texas state politicians trying to suppress the vote are now subverting it, by seizing control over a wide range of local decisions.

"Some self-interested politicians are choosing to look away while people are discriminated against, kicked out of their homes, dying in the heat on construction sites," Hudson asserted. "Because they are more interested in padding their pockets with corporate donations."

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show more Texas workers die from high temperatures than any other state.

From 1970 to 2022, Climate Central said three Texas cities - Austin, Houston and McAllen - were among the top 10 cities for "minimum-mortality temperature."