National Veterinary Medical Service Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (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, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1367, the National Veterinary Medical Service Act. I commend the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering) for his leadership on this issue.

H.R. 1367, as amended, authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, subject to the availability of appropriations, to assist veterinarians in repaying their educational loans if they agree to provide veterinary medical services in areas where the Secretary has determined a shortage of qualified veterinarians exists.

In addition, at the request of the USDA, the bill authorizes the Secretary to provide additional loan repayment for those veterinarians in this program who agree to provide services to the Federal Government in emergency situations. Examples of when this may be important include California's recent experience with Exotic Newcastle Disease, or in a case closer to home, an outbreak of low pathogenic Avian influenza in Virginia here in 2002. In both of these examples, the Federal Government, acting through USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, mobilizes its resources in order to detect, control and eradicate disease. Having a pool of qualified veterinarians able to assist in a time of emergency simply bolsters our ability to rapidly contain diseases which can cost our economy millions or even billions of dollars.

Once again, I commend the gentleman from Mississippi for his hard work on this important legislation and urge all Members to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering), the author of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) for yielding and for raising this issue. We have talked to the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Goodlatte), and it is our understanding and intent that nothing in this language would preclude any veterinarian, no matter when they graduated from vet school, from applying or to participate so long as they have eligible student loan debt and meet other criteria for participation as described in the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering). I think this is a very important piece of legislation. I think veterinarians in some respects are like tourniquets: we do not need one often; but when we do need one, we need one rapidly; and in underserved areas, it could become a very serious problem. So I think this is an important piece of legislation. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and all of his staff who have worked in a bipartisan manner with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) and myself as we have brought this much-needed legislation through the committee and now to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I want to thank those leaders at Mississippi State University who had the foresight and the ability to bring to our attention here on the committee and in my office the need that we have, the critical need, the desperate need that we have to be able to help our students, our veterinarian students who

often end up their education with up to, on average, $70,000 in debt. When that occurs, it is so difficult for them to pay the debt and practice in rural or underserved markets and make the type of salary that is needed to be able to retire that debt and pay that debt and raise a family, start a family and start their dreams. And so we are doing just as we have done for medical doctors and dentists and nurses and teachers, and, that is, starting a program that will help them repay their debt, that will pick up those obligations, if in return, they will agree to serve in those areas where we have critical shortages in the rural and the large-animal practices and the underserved markets. Not only will they fill that critical need that is so important not only in animal health, but as it relates to the connections to human health, and in national security, and in homeland security, where we have new threats of bioterrorism, or we have the outbreaks of dreaded diseases that we have seen ravage not only Europe, the economy and the agricultural economy in Europe with mad cow disease, that in those times of crisis those that sign up and meet these requirements and then have their debts repaid, will agree to serve their country, in essence, a National Guard for veterinarians.

So we see today a way to meet the critical shortage of veterinarians in rural and underserved markets. We see a way to encourage the service to our country in homeland security and to meet the threats of either bioterrorism or major animal disease outbreaks. This is much-needed legislation that will help us as we go forward.

Again, I want to thank the committee, the staff, the chairman, and the ranking member for all their help and assistance in getting us to this point. We hope that this legislation can pass not only today in the House but move quickly through the Senate as we address this much- needed legislation and to address the critical shortages that we face in rural districts like mine and across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 1367, the National Veterinary Medical Services Act. I want to commend the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) for their good work in advancing this legislation.

Assuring an adequate supply of veterinarians in many underserved rural and urban areas is a critical issue for our Nation's animal health infrastructure. It is generally private veterinarians who are the first to identify and respond to animal disease outbreaks. In addition, there is a great need for private veterinarians to supplement the Federal response during future animal health emergencies. The assistance that this legislation will provide to encourage veterinary practice in underserved areas, along with the creation of something like a ``National Guard'' for private veterinarians who can be called up in emergencies, should wisely enhance our preparation to deal with future animal health emergencies.

The bill under consideration will help to encourage both goals through a very modest public investment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I believe H.R. 1367 is a good, cost-effective policy. I encourage Members to support passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would ask to engage the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) on behalf of the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Goodlatte) in a brief colloquy.

During the Committee consideration of H.R. 1367, I raised some concerns about the potential that implementation of this bill, should it be passed and signed into law, might include an arbitrary graduation cutoff date for veterinarians wishing to participate. We certainly do not want to preclude participation by veterinarians that may have years of valuable experience. This has been a problem with regard to a different educational loan repayment program that folks from my district have tried to access in the past. It is my understanding that nothing in this legislation before us today would encourage the establishment of such a standard by USDA. It is my understanding that any veterinarian who meets the general standards for participation would be eligible to apply for this program no matter how long might have elapsed since her or his graduation from an accredited school of veterinary medicine. Is that the gentleman's understanding of the bill language?

I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for helping to make this point clear.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleagues for this needed legislation which ensures the Federal Government's deep commitment to a highly trained and diverse workforce in rural and underserved areas, and encourages veterinarians to assist the U.S. Department of Agriculture in emergency disease outbreak situations. But we should go even further. In order to best maximize Federal Government resources, both in this program at the Department of Agriculture, as well as loan repayment programs throughout the Federal Government, we should allow competition within other aspects of the student loan program, including consolidation loans.

The 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act allowed Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) student loan borrowers who hold loans from more than one underlying lender to select from those lenders when consolidating their loans. This change has enabled many recent college graduates to refinance their loans at a lower fixed-interest rate. However, student loan borrowers who hold loans through a single lender must consolidate loans through their current lender. This rule is known as the ``Single Holder Rule.''

In order to ensure that we instill competition, we will need to make sure that during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which is currently moving through the Education and the Workforce Committee, we repeal the single holder rule. I want to thank Chairman Boehner and Congressman McKeon for their efforts to keep college costs under control during consideration of this important legislation. It will be part of my commitment to Federal agencies, students and families everywhere that they have the benefit of competition from qualified lenders in the program when they consolidate their loans and, thus, allow them to take advantage of historically low fixed interest rates-- just as other borrowers are able to do every day.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Agriculture Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1367 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, this is legislation that I authored and was very proud to have authored. This is the bill that is going to help protect large cats from being owned in a place such as New York and kept in apartments.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.