Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1305 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 1305
5	5	To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a working
6	6	group to formulate recommendations for standardizing the measurements
7	7	of loneliness and isolation, and for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
9	9	FEBRUARY13, 2025
10	10	Mr. F
11	11	LOOD(for himself and Mr. BERA) introduced the following bill; which
12	12	was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to
15	15	establish a working group to formulate recommendations
16	16	for standardizing the measurements of loneliness and
17	17	isolation, and for other purposes.
18	18	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
19	19	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
20	20	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
21	21	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Measure-4
22	22	ments for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2025’’. 5
23	23	SEC. 2. WORKING GROUP ON UNIFYING LONELINESS RE-6
24	24	SEARCH. 7
25	25	(a) D
26	26	EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
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29	29	•HR 1305 IH
30	30	(1) The term ‘‘isolation’’ means the objective 1
31	31	lack of social relationships or limited social contact 2
32	32	with others. 3
33	33	(2) The term ‘‘loneliness’’ means a subjective 4
34	34	feeling of being isolated. 5
35	35	(b) E
36	36	STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 6
37	37	Human Services (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Sec-7
38	38	retary’’) shall establish a national working group, to be 8
39	39	known as the Working Group on Unifying Loneliness Re-9
40	40	search (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Working 10
41	41	Group’’), to formulate recommendations for standardizing 11
42	42	the measurements of loneliness and isolation. 12
43	43	(c) G
44	44	OALS.—The goals of the recommendations 13
45	45	under subsection (b) shall be the following: 14
46	46	(1) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation 15
47	47	among Federal departments and agencies with re-16
48	48	spect to developing standardized measurements of 17
49	49	loneliness and isolation for the purposes of— 18
50	50	(A) having standardized measurements for 19
51	51	use in public and private research, including 20
52	52	surveys across varying populations, with the 21
53	53	ability to capture the level of granularity needed 22
54	54	to guide strategic decisionmaking, planning, 23
55	55	and evaluation of strategies to combat loneli-24
56	56	ness and isolation; and 25
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59	59	•HR 1305 IH
60	60	(B) providing reliable, consistent measure-1
61	61	ment tools for use across fields and industries 2
62	62	in health care. 3
63	63	(2) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation 4
64	64	among Federal departments and agencies with re-5
65	65	spect to developing standardized definitions of loneli-6
66	66	ness, isolation, and relevant terms associated with 7
67	67	loneliness and isolation for the purposes of edu-8
68	68	cation, awareness, and understanding of the terms 9
69	69	for the general public. 10
70	70	(3) Assessment of the alignment of previous 11
71	71	methods of measuring loneliness and isolation in the 12
72	72	public and private sectors. 13
73	73	(d) C
74	74	OMPOSITION.—The Working Group shall be 14
75	75	composed of— 15
76	76	(1) senior-level representatives of— 16
77	77	(A) the Department of Health and Human 17
78	78	Services; 18
79	79	(B) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 19
80	80	Services; 20
81	81	(C) the Centers for Disease Control and 21
82	82	Prevention; 22
83	83	(D) the Administration for Community 23
84	84	Living; 24
85	85	(E) the National Institutes of Health; 25
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88	88	•HR 1305 IH
89	89	(F) the Substance Abuse and Mental 1
90	90	Health Services Administration; 2
91	91	(G) the Health Resources and Services Ad-3
92	92	ministration; 4
93	93	(H) the Agency for Healthcare Research 5
94	94	and Quality; and 6
95	95	(I) other agencies, groups, subject matter 7
96	96	experts, or researchers the Secretary deems 8
97	97	beneficial to be represented in the Working 9
98	98	Group consistent with the goals specified in 10
99	99	subsection (c); 11
100	100	(2) 1 representative of each of the three States 12
101	101	with the highest numbers of practitioners needed to 13
102	102	remove the designations of all mental health care 14
103	103	health professional shortage areas in the respective 15
104	104	State (as reflected in the report of the Health Re-16
105	105	sources and Services Administration titled ‘‘Des-17
106	106	ignated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statis-18
107	107	tics’’ (June 30, 2023), with each such representative 19
108	108	designated by the Governor of the respective State; 20
109	109	and 21
110	110	(3) 1 representative of the each of the three 22
111	111	States with the lowest numbers of practitioners 23
112	112	needed to remove such designations, with each such 24
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115	115	•HR 1305 IH
116	116	representative designated by the Governor of the re-1
117	117	spective State. 2
118	118	(e) R
119	119	EPORT TOCONGRESS.— 3
120	120	(1) I
121	121	N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 4
122	122	after the date of enactment of this Act, the Working 5
123	123	Group shall— 6
124	124	(A) submit to the committees listed in 7
125	125	paragraph (3) a report describing the work and 8
126	126	recommendations of the Working Group; and 9
127	127	(B) make such report publicly available on 10
128	128	the internet. 11
129	129	(2) M
130	130	EETINGS.—The Working Group shall 12
131	131	meet not less than 3 times in the course of devel-13
132	132	oping its report. 14
133	133	(3) C
134	134	OMMITTEES.—The committees referred to 15
135	135	in paragraph (1)(A) are the following: 16
136	136	(A) The Committee on Education and 17
137	137	Workforce of the House of Representatives. 18
138	138	(B) The Committee on Energy and Com-19
139	139	merce of the House of Representatives. 20
140	140	(C) The Committee on Ways and Means of 21
141	141	the House of Representatives. 22
142	142	(D) The Committee on Finance of the Sen-23
143	143	ate. 24
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146	146	•HR 1305 IH
147	147	(E) The Committee on Health, Education, 1
148	148	Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 2
149	149	(f) D
150	150	EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘State’’ 3
151	151	means the 50 States. 4
152	152	(g) S
153	153	UNSET.—This section shall cease to be effective 5
154	154	at the end of calendar year 2027. 6
155	155	Æ
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