IIB 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3519 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 

and Forestry 

AN ACT 

To amend the National Agricultural Research, Extension 

and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 to establish a grant 

program to promote efforts to develop, implement, and 

sustain veterinary services, 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 ‘‘Veterinarian Services 

3 Investment Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. VETERINARY SERVICES GRANT PROGRAM. 

5 The National Agricultural Research, Extension, and 

6 Teaching Policy Act of 1977 is amended by inserting after 

7 section 1415A (7 U.S.C. 3151a) the following new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 1415B. VETERINARY SERVICES GRANT PROGRAM. 

9 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.— 

10 ‘‘(1) COMPETITIVE GRANTS.—The Secretary 

11 shall carry out a program to make competitive 

12 grants to qualified entities that engage in activities 

13 described in paragraph (2) for the purpose of devel14 oping, implementing, and sustaining veterinary serv15 ices. 

16 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligi17 ble for a grant under this subsection, a qualified en18 tity must carry out programs or activities that the 

19 Secretary determines will— 

20 ‘‘(A) substantially relieve veterinarian 

21 shortage situations; 

22 ‘‘(B) support or facilitate private veteri23 nary practices engaged in public health activi24 ties; or 

25 ‘‘(C) support or facilitate practices of vet26 erinarians who are participating in or have sucVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:34 Sep 17, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3519.RFS H3519

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1 cessfully completed a service requirement under 

2 section 1415A(a)(2). 

3 ‘‘(b) AWARD PROCESSES AND PREFERENCES.— 

4 ‘‘(1) APPLICATION, EVALUATION, AND INPUT

5 PROCESSES.—In administrating the grant program 

6 under this section, the Secretary shall use an appro7 priate application and evaluation process and seek 

8 the input of interested persons. 

9 ‘‘(2) GRANT PREFERENCES.—In the case of 

10 grants to be used for any of the purposes described 

11 in paragraphs (2) through (6) of subsection (c), the 

12 Secretary shall give a preference to the selection of 

13 qualified entities that document coordination be14 tween or with other qualified entities regarding the 

15 applicable purpose. 

16 ‘‘(3) ADDITIONAL PREFERENCES.—When 

17 awarding grants under this section, the Secretary 

18 may develop additional preferences by taking into 

19 account the amount of funds available for grants as 

20 well as the purposes for which the grant funds will 

21 be used. 

22 ‘‘(4) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS.— 

23 Sections 1413B, 1462(a), 1469(a)(3), 1469(c), and 

24 1470 shall apply to the administration of the grant 

25 program under this section. 


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1 ‘‘(c) USE OF GRANTS TO RELIEVE VETERINARIAN

2 SHORTAGE SITUATIONS AND SUPPORT VETERINARY

3 SERVICES.—Funds provided by grants under this section 

4 may be used for the following purposes to relieve veteri5 narian shortage situations and support veterinary services: 

6 ‘‘(1) Grants to assist veterinarians with estab7 lishing or expanding practices for the purpose of 

8 equipping veterinary offices, sharing in the reason9 able overhead costs of such practices (as determined 

10 by the Secretary), or establishing mobile veterinary 

11 facilities where at least a portion of such facilities 

12 will address education or extension needs. 

13 ‘‘(2) Grants to promote recruitment (including 

14 programs in secondary schools), placement, and re15 tention of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, stu16 dents of veterinary medicine, and students of veteri17 nary technology. 

18 ‘‘(3) Grants for veterinary students, veterinary 

19 interns, externs, fellows, and residents, and veteri20 nary technician students to cover expenses (other 

21 than the types of expenses listed in 1415A(c)(5)) to 

22 attend training programs in food safety or food ani23 mal medicine. 

24 ‘‘(4) Grants establishing or expanding accred25 ited veterinary education programs (including facVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:34 Sep 17, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3519.RFS H3519

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1 ulty recruitment and retention), veterinary residency 

2 and fellowship programs, or veterinary internship 

3 and externship programs in coordination with ac4 credited colleges of veterinary medicine. 

5 ‘‘(5) Grants for the assessment of veterinarian 

6 shortage situations and preparation of applications 

7 for designation as a shortage situation. 

8 ‘‘(6) Grants in continuing education and exten9 sion, including tele-veterinary medicine and other 

10 distance-based education, for veterinarians, veteri11 nary technicians, and other health professionals 

12 needed to strengthen veterinary programs and en13 hance food safety. 

14 ‘‘(d) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN

15 GRANTS.— 

16 ‘‘(1) TERMS OF SERVICE REQUIREMENTS.— 

17 Grants provided under this section for the purpose 

18 specified in subsection (c)(1) shall be subject to an 

19 agreement between the Secretary and the grant re20 cipient that includes a required term of service for 

21 the recipient, as established by the Secretary. In es22 tablishing such terms, the Secretary shall consider 

23 only— 

24 ‘‘(A) the amount of the grant awarded; 

25 and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the specific purpose of the grant. 

2 ‘‘(2) BREACH REMEDIES.—An agreement under 

3 paragraph (1) shall provide remedies for any breach 

4 of the agreement by the grant recipient, including 

5 repayment or partial repayment of the grant funds, 

6 with interest. The Secretary may waive the repay7 ment obligation in the event of extreme hardship or 

8 extreme need, as determined by the Secretary. 

9 ‘‘(3) TREATMENT OF AMOUNTS RECOVERED.— 

10 Funds recovered under paragraph (2) shall be cred11 ited to the account available to carry out this section 

12 and shall remain available until expended. 

13 ‘‘(e) COST-SHARING REQUIREMENTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) RECIPIENT SHARE.—A grant recipient 

15 shall provide matching non-Federal funds, either in 

16 cash or in-kind support, in an amount equal to not 

17 less than 50 percent of the Federal funds provided 

18 in a grant under this section. 

19 ‘‘(2) WAIVER.—The Secretary may establish, by 

20 regulation, conditions under which the cost-sharing 

21 requirements of paragraph (1) may be reduced or 

22 waived. 

23 ‘‘(f) PROHIBITION ON USE OF GRANT FUNDS FOR

24 CONSTRUCTION.—Funds made available for grants under 

25 this section shall not be used for the construction of a 


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1 new building or facility or the acquisition, expansion, re2 modeling, or alteration of an existing building of facility, 

3 including site grading and improvement and architect fees. 

4 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

5 ‘‘(1) VETERINARIAN SHORTAGE SITUATION.— 

6 The term ‘veterinarian shortage situation’ means a 

7 veterinarian shortage situation determined by the 

8 Secretary under section 1415A(b). 

9 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED ENTITY.—The term ‘qualified 

10 entity’ means the following: 

11 ‘‘(A) A for-profit or nonprofit entity lo12 cated in the United States that operates a vet13 erinary clinic providing veterinary services— 

14 ‘‘(i) in a rural area, as defined in sec15 tion 1393(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue 

16 Code of 1986; and 

17 ‘‘(ii) in response to a veterinarian 

18 shortage situation. 

19 ‘‘(B) A State, national, allied, or regional 

20 veterinary organization or specialty board rec21 ognized by the American Veterinary Medical 

22 Association. 

23 ‘‘(C) A college or school of veterinary med24 icine accredited by the American Veterinary 

25 Medical Association. 


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1 ‘‘(D) A university research foundation or 

2 veterinary medical foundation. 

3 ‘‘(E) A department of veterinary science or 

4 department of comparative medicine accredited 

5 by the Department of Education. 

6 ‘‘(F) A State agricultural experiment sta7 tion. 

8 ‘‘(G) A State, local, or tribal government 

9 agency. 

10 ‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

11 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such 

12 sums as are necessary to carry out this section for fiscal 

13 year 2012 and each fiscal year thereafter. Amounts appro14 priated pursuant to this authorization of appropriations 

15 shall remain available to the Secretary for the purposes 

16 of this section until expended.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 15, 

2010. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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