I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6284 
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 
NOVEMBER 8, 2023 
Mr. FLOOD (for himself and Mr. TRONE) 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 Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Measure-
ments for Loneliness and Isolation Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. WORKING GROUP ON UNIFYING LONELINESS RE-
SEARCH. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
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(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 ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) shall establish a national working group, to be 
known as the Working Group on Unifying Loneliness Re-
search (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 re-
spect 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 decision making, planning, 
and evaluation of strategies to combat loneli-
ness and isolation; and 
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(B) providing reliable, consistent measure-
ment tools for use across fields and industries 
in health care. 
(2) Collaboration, cooperation, and consultation 
among Federal departments and agencies with re-
spect to developing standardized definitions of loneli-
ness, isolation, and relevant terms associated with 
loneliness and isolation for the purposes of edu-
cation, 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; 
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(F) the Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Administration; 
(G) the Health Resources and Services Ad-
ministration; 
(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 Re-
sources and Services Administration titled ‘‘Des-
ignated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statis-
tics’’ (June 30, 2023)), with each such representa-
tive 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 
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representative designated by the Governor of the re-
spective 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 devel-
oping its report. 
(3) COMMITTEES.—The committees referred to 
in paragraph (1)(A) are the following: 
(A) The Committee on Education and the 
Workforce of the House of Representatives. 
(B) The Committee on Energy and Com-
merce of the House of Representatives. 
(C) The Committee on Ways and Means of 
the House of Representatives. 
(D) The Committee on Finance of the Sen-
ate. 
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(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 2026. 
Æ 
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