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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3431 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3431
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 11, 2025
Mr. Ricketts (for himself and Ms. Hassan) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
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 each of
the 50 States.
(g) Sunset.--This section shall cease to be effective at the end of
calendar year 2027.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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