1. Short title This Act may be cited as the National Strategy for Social Connection Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) The health of the Nation is rightly measured not only by its aggregate wealth or global power, but more centrally by its shared vision and the bonds of connection that knit its people into a community. (2) The fraying of the social fabric is directly implicated in the growth of loneliness, decline of civic and religious participation, the disintegration of communities, rising economic inequality and precarity, falling economic mobility, rising rates of depression, anxiety and addiction, diminishing health and life expectancy and rising levels of polarization and radicalization. (3) These changes affect all people of the United States, but fall with particular force on the poor and marginalized, on children and adolescents, on individuals residing in economically disadvantaged regions, on veterans and on the elderly, and individuals without a college degree. (4) The Surgeon General declared an epidemic of loneliness and isolation on May 2, 2023. (5) According to the Surgeon General, social isolation and loneliness pose a significant risk to individual health and longevity, including a 29 percent increased risk of heart disease, a 32 percent increased risk of stroke, and for older adults, a 50 percent increased risk of developing dementia. (6) Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for premature death by 26 percent and 29 percent, respectively. (7) The general flourishing, economic health and stability of the United States, and the effective functioning of government and society require renewed attention to social connection at every level of society, from individual and family, to local community and Nation. (8) The causal connections between these changes are complex, and thus the various cultural, technological, demographic, economic, political and institutional drivers of social connection require attention from a dedicated expert body that may develop and share