```

[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1367 Introduced in House (IH)]

108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1367

 To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a loan repayment 
  program regarding the provision of veterinary services in shortage 
                  situations, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2003

  Mr. Pickering (for himself and Mr. Turner of Texas) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a loan repayment 
  program regarding the provision of veterinary services in shortage 
                  situations, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Veterinary Medical Services 
Act''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM REGARDING VETERINARY 
              MEDICINE.

    The National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy 
Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 
section 1415 the following new section:

``SEC. 1415A. VETERINARY MEDICINE LOAN REPAYMENT.

    ``(a) Program.--The Secretary shall carry out a program of entering 
into agreements with veterinarians under which the veterinarians agree 
to provide, for a period of time as determined by the Secretary and 
specified in the agreement, veterinary services in veterinarian 
shortage situations. For each year of such service under an agreement 
under this subsection, the Secretary shall pay an amount, as determined 
by the Secretary and specified in the agreement, of the principal and 
interest of qualifying educational loans of the veterinarians.
    ``(b) Veterinarian Shortage Situations.--In determining 
`veterinarian shortage situations' the Secretary may consider the 
following:
            ``(1) Urban or rural areas that the Secretary determines 
        have a shortage of veterinarians.
            ``(2) Population groups that the Secretary determines have 
        a shortage of veterinarians.
            ``(3) Areas of veterinary practice that the Secretary 
        determines have a shortage of veterinarians.
            ``(4) Other factors that the Secretary considers to be 
        relevant.
    ``(c) Administration.--
            ``(1) Contract authority.--The Secretary may carry out this 
        program directly or enter into agreements with another Federal 
        agency or other service provider to assist in the 
        administration of this program.
            ``(2) Breach remedies.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Agreements with program 
                participants shall provide remedies for any breach of 
                an agreement by a participant, including repayment of 
                financial assistance received in proportion to the time 
                served in the veterinary shortage situation.
                    ``(B) Waiver.--The Secretary may establish a waiver 
                process of this repayment obligation in the event of 
                extreme hardship, as determined by the Secretary.
                    ``(C) Amounts recovered.--Funds recovered under 
                this subsection shall be credited to the account 
                available to carry out this section and shall remain 
                available until expended.
            ``(3) Qualifying educational loans.--Loan repayments 
        provided under this section may consist of payments on behalf 
        of participating individuals of the principal, interest, and 
        related expenses on government and commercial loans received by 
        the individual for attendance of the individual at an 
        accredited college of veterinary medicine resulting in a degree 
        of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or the equivalent, which loans 
        were made for--
                    ``(A) tuition expenses;
                    ``(B) all other reasonable educational expenses, 
                including fees, books, and laboratory expenses, 
                incurred by the individual; or
                    ``(C) reasonable living expenses as determined by 
                the Secretary.
            ``(4) Repayment schedule.--The Secretary may enter into an 
        agreement with the holder of any loan for which payments are 
        made under this section to establish a schedule for the making 
        of such payments.
            ``(5) Tax liability.--In addition to making educational 
        loan repayments, the Secretary shall make such additional 
        payments to participants as the Secretary determines to be 
        appropriate for the purpose of providing reimbursements to 
        participants for individual tax liability resulting from 
        participation in the program under this section.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated for carrying out this section such sums as may be 
necessary.''.
                                 <all>
```