Bill Details
HR.1305 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-02-13 - Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced Date
2025-02-13
Policy Area
Health
Committees
View committees (1)
Sponsors
Cosponsors
6
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create a national working group focused on loneliness and isolation. The group would study how these issues are measured, set common definitions, and give recommendations so researchers, health care providers, and the public can use the same basic standards. The goal is to make comparisons easier, improve research, and help guide efforts to reduce loneliness and isolation.
- The bill defines “loneliness” as the feeling of being isolated, and “isolation” as having too little social contact or too few social relationships.
- The working group would include federal health agencies, other experts chosen by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and representatives from six states: three with the highest need for mental health professionals and three with the lowest need.
- The group would study how loneliness and isolation have been measured in the past and recommend common ways to measure them in future research, surveys, and health care settings.
- Within one year, the group must submit a report to Congress and post it online for the public. It must meet at least three times, and the section would end at the close of 2027.
Official Summaries
Improving Measurements for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2025
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Working Group on Unifying Loneliness Research. The working group must recommend standardized measurements of loneliness and social isolation for use in research and educating the public. The working group must report to Congress on its work and recommendations and make this information publicly available online. The working group sunsets on December 31, 2027.
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1305 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1305
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a
working group to formulate recommendations for standardizing the
measurements of loneliness and isolation, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 13, 2025
Mr. Flood (for himself and Mr. Bera) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a
working group to formulate recommendations for standardizing the
measurements of loneliness and isolation, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Improving Measurements for
Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. WORKING GROUP ON UNIFYING LONELINESS RESEARCH.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``isolation'' means the objective lack of
social relationships or limited social contact with others.
(2) The term ``loneliness'' means a subjective feeling of
being isolated.
(b) Establishment.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services (in
this section referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall establish a
national working group, to be known as the Working Group on Unifying
Loneliness Research (in this section referred to as the ``Working
Group''), to formulate recommendations for standardizing the
measurements of loneliness and isolation.
(c) Goals.--The goals of the recommendations under subsection (b)
shall be the following:
(1) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation among
Federal departments and agencies with respect to developing
standardized measurements of loneliness and isolation for the
purposes of--
(A) having standardized measurements for use in
public and private research, including surveys across
varying populations, with the ability to capture the
level of granularity needed to guide strategic
decisionmaking, planning, and evaluation of strategies
to combat loneliness and isolation; and
(B) providing reliable, consistent measurement
tools for use across fields and industries in health
care.
(2) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation among
Federal departments and agencies with respect to developing
standardized definitions of loneliness, isolation, and relevant
terms associated with loneliness and isolation for the purposes
of education, awareness, and understanding of the terms for the
general public.
(3) Assessment of the alignment of previous methods of
measuring loneliness and isolation in the public and private
sectors.
(d) Composition.--The Working Group shall be composed of--
(1) senior-level representatives of--
(A) the Department of Health and Human Services;
(B) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services;
(C) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
(D) the Administration for Community Living;
(E) the National Institutes of Health;
(F) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration;
(G) the Health Resources and Services
Administration;
(H) the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality;
and
(I) other agencies, groups, subject matter experts,
or researchers the Secretary deems beneficial to be
represented in the Working Group consistent with the
goals specified in subsection (c);
(2) 1 representative of each of the three States with the
highest numbers of practitioners needed to remove the
designations of all mental health care health professional
shortage areas in the respective State (as reflected in the
report of the Health Resources and Services Administration
titled ``Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas
Statistics'' (June 30, 2023), with each such representative
designated by the Governor of the respective State; and
(3) 1 representative of the each of the three States with
the lowest numbers of practitioners needed to remove such
designations, with each such representative designated by the
Governor of the respective State.
(e) Report to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Working Group shall--
(A) submit to the committees listed in paragraph
(3) a report describing the work and recommendations of
the Working Group; and
(B) make such report publicly available on the
internet.
(2) Meetings.--The Working Group shall meet not less than 3
times in the course of developing its report.
(3) Committees.--The committees referred to in paragraph
(1)(A) are the following:
(A) The Committee on Education and Workforce of the
House of Representatives.
(B) The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives.
(C) The Committee on Ways and Means of the House of
Representatives.
(D) The Committee on Finance of the Senate.
(E) The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions of the Senate.
(f) Definition.--In this section, the term ``State'' means the 50
States.
(g) Sunset.--This section shall cease to be effective at the end of
calendar year 2027.
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