PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 13, 2025
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.
People & committees
Rep. Flood, Mike [R-NE-1] · R–NE
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Mar 31, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-13 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services to create a national working group that recommends consistent ways to measure loneliness and social isolation. Its recommendations would aim to help public and private researchers compare experiences across populations and give health care fields consistent measurement tools. The group would also recommend shared definitions to help the public understand these terms.
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.
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
providing reliable, consistent measurement tools for use across fields and industries in health care.
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.
The proposed law would be called the Improving Measurements for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2025.
This Act may be cited as the Improving Measurements for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2025.
The bill distinguishes social circumstances from personal feelings: isolation means lacking social relationships or having limited contact with others, while loneliness means feeling isolated.
(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.
The recommendations would aim to coordinate federal agencies' work on shared measurements and definitions. Measurement tools should provide enough detail to guide planning and evaluation of strategies addressing loneliness and isolation. The group would also assess how previous public and private measurement methods align.
Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation among Federal departments and agencies with respect to developing standardized measurements of loneliness and isolation
with the ability to capture the level of granularity needed to guide strategic decisionmaking, planning, and evaluation of strategies to combat loneliness and isolation
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
Assessment of the alignment of previous methods of measuring loneliness and isolation in the public and private sectors.
The working group would include senior representatives from eight named federal health departments and agencies. The Health and Human Services Secretary could also include other agencies, groups, experts, or researchers considered helpful to its goals.
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)
Governors would designate one representative from each of the three states with the highest numbers of practitioners needed to remove all their mental health care health professional shortage-area designations, and one from each of the three states with the lowest numbers needed to remove such designations. The bill expressly specifies the Health Resources and Services Administration's June 30, 2023 Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statistics report for selecting the highest-number states; it does not expressly specify a data source for selecting the lowest-number states. Only the 50 states would qualify.
(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.
In this section, the term State means the 50 States.
Within one year after enactment, the working group would have to submit a report on its work and recommendations to five congressional committees and publish it online. The recipients would be the House Education and Workforce, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means committees, and the Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees.
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.
(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.
The working group would have to meet at least three times while developing its report.
The Working Group shall meet not less than 3 times in the course of developing its report.
Section 2, which establishes the working group and its duties, would stop being effective at the end of calendar year 2027.
(g) Sunset This section shall cease to be effective at the end of calendar year 2027.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated March 31, 2026, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on February 13, 2025.
Source snapshot updated 2026-03-31T19:28:46Z. 2025-02-13: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 2025-02-13: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-13. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow benefit beyond routine working-group administration was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Mar 31, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI