II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3260 

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 

NOVEMBER 8, 2023 

Mr. RICKETTS 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Measure5 ments for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2023’’. 

6 SEC. 2. WORKING GROUP ON UNIFYING LONELINESS RE7 SEARCH. 

8 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•S 3260 IS

1 (1) The term ‘‘isolation’’ means the objective 

2 lack of social relationships or limited social contact 

3 with others. 

4 (2) The term ‘‘loneliness’’ means a subjective 

5 feeling of being isolated. 

6 (b) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 

7 Human Services (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Sec8 retary’’) shall establish a national working group, to be 

9 known as the Working Group on Unifying Loneliness Re10 search (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Working 

11 Group’’), to formulate recommendations for standardizing 

12 the measurements of loneliness and isolation. 

13 (c) GOALS.—The goals of the recommendations 

14 under subsection (b) shall be the following: 

15 (1) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation 

16 among Federal departments and agencies with re17 spect to developing standardized measurements of 

18 loneliness and isolation for the purposes of— 

19 (A) having standardized measurements for 

20 use in public and private research, including 

21 surveys across varying populations, with the 

22 ability to capture the level of granularity needed 

23 to guide strategic decisionmaking, planning, 

24 and evaluation of strategies to combat loneli25 ness and isolation; and 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•S 3260 IS

1 (B) providing reliable, consistent measure2 ment tools for use across fields and industries 

3 in health care. 

4 (2) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation 

5 among Federal departments and agencies with re6 spect to developing standardized definitions of loneli7 ness, isolation, and relevant terms associated with 

8 loneliness and isolation for the purposes of edu9 cation, awareness, and understanding of the terms 

10 for the general public. 

11 (3) Assessment of the alignment of previous 

12 methods of measuring loneliness and isolation in the 

13 public and private sectors. 

14 (d) COMPOSITION.—The Working Group shall be 

15 composed of— 

16 (1) senior-level representatives of— 

17 (A) the Department of Health and Human 

18 Services; 

19 (B) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

20 Services; 

21 (C) the Centers for Disease Control and 

22 Prevention; 

23 (D) the Administration for Community 

24 Living; 

25 (E) the National Institutes of Health; 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•S 3260 IS

1 (F) the Substance Abuse and Mental 

2 Health Services Administration; 

3 (G) the Health Resources and Services Ad4 ministration; 

5 (H) the Agency for Healthcare Research 

6 and Quality; and 

7 (I) other agencies, groups, subject matter 

8 experts, or researchers the Secretary deems 

9 beneficial to be represented in the Working 

10 Group consistent with the goals specified in 

11 subsection (c); 

12 (2) 1 representative of each of the three States 

13 with the highest numbers of practitioners needed to 

14 remove the designations of all mental health care 

15 health professional shortage areas in the respective 

16 State (as reflected in the report of the Health Re17 sources and Services Administration titled ‘‘Des18 ignated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statis19 tics’’ (June 30, 2023), with each such representative 

20 designated by the Governor of the respective State; 

21 and 

22 (3) 1 representative of the each of the three 

23 States with the lowest numbers of practitioners 

24 needed to remove such designations, with each such 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
5 

•S 3260 IS

1 representative designated by the Governor of the re2 spective State. 

3 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

5 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Working 

6 Group shall— 

7 (A) submit to the committees listed in 

8 paragraph (3) a report describing the work and 

9 recommendations of the Working Group; and 

10 (B) make such report publicly available on 

11 the internet. 

12 (2) MEETINGS.—The Working Group shall 

13 meet not less than 3 times in the course of devel14 oping its report. 

15 (3) COMMITTEES.—The committees referred to 

16 in paragraph (1)(A) are the following: 

17 (A) The Committee on Education and the 

18 Workforce of the House of Representatives. 

19 (B) The Committee on Energy and Com20 merce of the House of Representatives. 

21 (C) The Committee on Ways and Means of 

22 the House of Representatives. 

23 (D) The Committee on Finance of the Sen24 ate. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
6 

•S 3260 IS

1 (E) The Committee on Health, Education, 

2 Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 

3 (f) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘State’’ 

4 means the 50 States. 

5 (g) SUNSET.—This section shall cease to be effective 

6 at the end of calendar year 2026. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB