108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1367

AN ACT

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.

108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1367

AN ACT

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.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Veterinary

3 Medical Service Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM

5 REGARDING VETERINARY MEDICINE.

6 The National Agricultural Research, Extension, and

7 Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) is

8 amended by inserting after section 1415 the following new

9 section:

10 ‘‘SEC. 1415A. VETERINARY MEDICINE LOAN REPAYMENT.

11 ‘‘(a) PROGRAM.—

12 ‘‘(1) SERVICE IN SHORTAGE SITUATIONS.—The

13 Secretary shall carry out a program of entering into

14 agreements with veterinarians under which the vet15 erinarians agree to provide, for a period of time as

16 determined by the Secretary and specified in the

17 agreement, veterinary services in veterinarian short18 age situations. For each year of such service under

19 an agreement under this paragraph, the Secretary

20 shall pay an amount, as determined by the Secretary

21 and specified in the agreement, of the principal and

22 interest of qualifying educational loans of the veteri23 narians.

24 ‘‘(2) SERVICE TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN

25 EMERGENCY SITUATIONS.—
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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may

2 enter into agreements of one year duration with

3 veterinarians who have agreements pursuant to

4 paragraph (1) for such veterinarians to provide

5 services to the Federal Government in emer6 gency situations, as determined by the Sec7 retary, under terms and conditions specified in

8 the agreement. Pursuant to an agreement

9 under this paragraph, the Secretary shall pay

10 an amount, in addition to the amount paid pur11 suant to the agreement in paragraph (1), as de12 termined by the Secretary and specified in the

13 agreement, of the principal and interest of

14 qualifying educational loans of the veterinar15 ians.

16 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—Agreements en17 tered into under this paragraph shall include

18 the following:

19 ‘‘(i) A veterinarian shall not be re20 quired to serve more than 60 working days

21 per year of the agreement.

22 ‘‘(ii) A veterinarian who provides serv23 ice pursuant to the agreement shall receive

24 a salary commensurate with the duties and

25 shall be reimbursed for travel and per diem
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1 expenses as appropriate for the duration of

2 the service.

3 ‘‘(b) DETERMINATION OF VETERINARIAN SHORTAGE

4 SITUATIONS.—In determining ‘veterinarian shortage situ5 ations’ the Secretary may consider the following:

6 ‘‘(1) Urban or rural areas that the Secretary

7 determines have a shortage of veterinarians.

8 ‘‘(2) Areas of veterinary practice that the Sec9 retary determines have a shortage of veterinarians,

10 such as public health, epidemiology, and food safety.

11 ‘‘(3) Areas of veterinary need in the Federal

12 Government.

13 ‘‘(4) Other factors that the Secretary considers

14 to be relevant.

15 ‘‘(c) ADMINISTRATION.—

16 ‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary may carry

17 out this program directly or enter into agreements

18 with another Federal agency or other service pro19 vider to assist in the administration of this program.

20 ‘‘(2) BREACH REMEDIES.—

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Agreements with pro22 gram participants shall provide remedies for

23 any breach of an agreement by a participant,

24 including repayment or partial repayment of fi25 nancial assistance received, with interest.
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1 ‘‘(B) AMOUNTS RECOVERED.—Funds re2 covered under this subsection shall be credited

3 to the account available to carry out this sec4 tion and shall remain available until expended.

5 ‘‘(3) WAIVER.—The Secretary may grant a

6 waiver of the repayment obligation for breach of

7 contract in the event of extreme hardship or extreme

8 need, as determined by the Secretary.

9 ‘‘(4) AMOUNT.—The Secretary shall develop

10 regulations to determine the amount of loan repay11 ment for a year of service by a veterinarian. In mak12 ing the determination, the Secretary shall consider

13 the extent to which such determination—

14 ‘‘(A) affects the ability of the Secretary to

15 maximize the number of agreements that can

16 be provided under the Veterinary Medicine

17 Loan Repayment Program from the amounts

18 appropriated for such agreements; and

19 ‘‘(B) provides an incentive to serve in vet20 erinary service shortage areas with the greatest

21 need.

22 ‘‘(5) QUALIFYING EDUCATIONAL LOANS.—Loan

23 repayments provided under this section may consist

24 of payments on behalf of participating individuals of

25 the principal and interest on government and com-
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1 mercial loans received by the individual for attend2 ance of the individual at an accredited college of vet3 erinary medicine resulting in a degree of Doctor of

4 Veterinary Medicine or the equivalent, which loans

5 were made for—

6 ‘‘(A) tuition expenses;

7 ‘‘(B) all other reasonable educational ex8 penses, including fees, books, and laboratory ex9 penses, incurred by the individual; or

10 ‘‘(C) reasonable living expenses as deter11 mined by the Secretary.

12 ‘‘(6) REPAYMENT SCHEDULE.—The Secretary

13 may enter into an agreement with the holder of any

14 loan for which payments are made under this section

15 to establish a schedule for the making of such pay16 ments.

17 ‘‘(7) TAX LIABILITY.—In addition to edu18 cational loan repayments, the Secretary shall make

19 such additional payments to participants as the Sec20 retary determines to be appropriate for the purpose

21 of providing reimbursements to participants for indi22 vidual tax liability resulting from participation in

23 this program.

24 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

25 are authorized to be appropriated for carrying out this sec-
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1 tion such sums as may be necessary and such sums shall

2 remain available to the Secretary for the purposes of this

3 section until expended.’’.

Passed the House of Representatives November 17,

2003.

Attest:

Clerk.