109th Congress

Veterinary Workforce Expansion Act

S. 914, H.R. 2206

Background

Veterinary medicine helps protect human health by preventing and controlling infectious diseases, ensuring the safety of the Nation’s food supply, promoting healthy environments, and providing health care for animals. Veterinarians are essential for early detection of and response to disease events, and they play a critical role in environmental quality, laboratory animal medicine, and drug and vaccine safety. Veterinarians are also important in the fight against avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, and mad cow disease, which have the potential to severely impact animal health and welfare, food safety, and public health, as well as adversely affect the U.S. economy.

Despite the critical public health role of veterinarians, the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges foresees a shortage of veterinarians. The 28 U.S. Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, operating at full capacity, can graduate only 2,500 veterinarians each year. Population trends project a shortage of 15,000 veterinarians by 2025.

Advocates describe a need to build national capacity in research and training for the prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, and control of newly emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. They suggest that national readiness to face public health challenges of the future requires an increase in the number of veterinary graduates and improved research capabilities in veterinary medicine.

Provisions of the Legislation/Impact on NIH

S. 914 and H.R. 2206 would have created a new institute at the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Comparative Medicine, and would have authorized a competitive grants program to be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the purpose of building infrastructure in veterinary medical education. “Eligible entities” for such grants would have been defined as accredited public or nonprofit schools of veterinary medicine, departments of comparative medicine, departments of veterinary science, schools of public health, and schools of medicine that offer training for veterinarians in a public health practice. The legislation would have also authorized the appropriation of $1.5 billion over 10 years to expand existing schools and increase classroom, administrative, and laboratory space.

Status and Outlook

S. 914 was introduced by Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) on April 27, 2005, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The bill was reported out favorably by the Committee without amendment. No further action occurred on this legislation during the 109th Congress.

H.R. 2206 was introduced by Representative Charles “Chip” Pickering, Jr. (R-MS) on May 9, 2005, and was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. The bill was reported out favorably by the Committee without amendment. No further action occurred on this legislation during the 109th Congress.