AAVMC Legislative Program

110th Congress, First Session

The AAVMC legislative program for the first session of the 110th Congress is developed around eight legislative priorities as determined by the Association. Those priorities are:

    1.  Advocate for The Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act

         (VPHWEA)

         -  H.R. 1232 / S. 746

    2.  Advocate for more extramural federal research funds

    3.  Advocate for establishment of veterinary medical education centers of

         emphasis

    4.  Advocate for funds and programs to assure the veterinary workforce is

         trained to meet the needs of our diverse populaton

    5.  Advocate for appropriate funding for the:

         -  National Veterinary Medical Service Act (NVMSA)

         -  Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD)

         -  Formula 1433 Extramural Funding for Animal Health and Disease

            Research

         -  National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN)

    6.  Support for Animal Care and Welfare

         -  Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act (C. 261)

         -  Captive Primate Safety Act (S. 1498)

         -  Wildlife GAINS Act (S. 1246)

    7.  AAVMC Policy on Class B Dealers

    8.  Support for National Agriculture Food and Defense Act (NAFDA)

  

The AAVMC will work with former Senator John Melcher, DVM, AAVMC consultant, on all of these legislative priorities to continually evaluate and change strategies to implement for this program as needed.

The Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act (VPHWEA)

 

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI-2) and Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) introduced the VPHWEA on February 28th and March 2nd, 2007 respectively.  The bill is very similar to the Veterinary Workforce Expansion Act in the 109th Congress with a few improved changes that the AAVMC requested.

 

This legislation establishes a competitive grant program through the United States Department of Health and Human Services to build capacity in veterinary medical education and expand the workforce of veterinarians engaged in public health practice and biomedical research.  The Secretary shall establish procedures to ensure that applications are rigorously reviewed and that grants are competitively awarded on the ability of the applicant to increase the number of veterinarians who are trained in specific public health practice areas and the ability of the applicant to increase capacity in research on high priority disease agents.

 

Preference shall be given to applicants that demonstrate a comprehensive approach by involving more than one school of veterinary medicine, department of comparative medicine, department of veterinary science, school of public health, school of medicine, or residency training program that offers postgraduate training for veterinarians in a public health practice. Funds received under a grant shall be used to increase the number of veterinarians in the workforce through paying the costs associated with construction, the acquisition of equipment, and other capital costs related to the expansion of existing schools of veterinary medicine, departments of comparative medicine, departments of veterinary science, or entities offering residency training programs, or paying the capital costs associated with the expansion of academic programs that offer postgraduate training for veterinarians or concurrent training for veterinary students in specific areas of specialization.

UPDATE 7/30/07:  VPHWEA was included in the Senate's version of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act (HEA) that passed the Senate on July 24th, 2007.  The authorizing language differs from the stand alone bill in a few key areas:

        -  Authorization of appropriations changed to "such sums as necessary"

           from specific dollar amounts.  Term of grant program shortened from ten to

           five years.

        -  Use of funds altered from "capital construction" to "minor repairs and

           improvements"

HEA now moves to the house where it will be considered before the Committee on Education and Labor chaired by Congressman Miller (CA-7).  The House Committee has taken up portions of the Senate's version of the bill and intends to finalize the remaining portions by the end of the year.

AAVMC will be diligently working with our supports in the House to include the original VPHWEA language in their version of the HEA.  We are developing a strategy to advocate for this and will be seeking support for this strategy from our members and stakeholders.

VPHWEA One-Page Briefing Document

Quoatations from HSPD-9 and National Acadamies studies in support of VPHWEA

Extramural Federal Research Funds

And

Veterinary Medical Education Centers of Emphasis

 

• These two important AAVMC legislative priorities are being advocated for through two channels: 1) The Creating Research, Extension, and Teaching Excellence for the 21st Century (CREATE-21) legislative initiative; and 2) Stand alone legislative initiatives for inclusion in the Farm Bill

 The AAVMC policy on the 2007 Farm Bill legislation is:

• Support for the CREATE-21 legislative initiative

• Advocate for a new program for Enhanced Education of Food Supply Veterinarians through Centers of Emphasis (excellence) in Food Animal Medicine included in the CREATE-21 legislative initiative

• Advocate to have appropriate funds for competitive extramural research on agricultural animals for the protection of animal health through prevention, detection, and control of diseases with an adequate amount reserved for proposals targeting regional or national research on new and emerging diseases included in the CREATE-21 legislative initiative

Programs to Assure the Veterinary Workforce is Trained to Meet the Needs of our Diverse Population

 

A few AAVMC member institutions receive funding under health professions training programs for minority students under Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. Tuskegee University CVM receives ¼ of their funding through these programs.

In the past AAVMC has not directly engaged members of Congress on this issue but has worked with coalition partners like the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC) and the Federation of Associations of Schools of Health Professions (FASHP) to secure funding for these programs.

 

Congress has under funded these programs in the last few appropriations cycles and the Bush Administration has zeroed-out funds for these programs in their annual budget recommendations for three straight years. AAVMC will continue to partner with coalitions to advocate for increased funding for these programs and offer what assistance we can to AAVMC member institutions requesting help advocating for these programs for their individual schools. The AAVMC plans on contacting AAVMC member institutions to have an accurate assessment of which members are or have received these funds in the past. AAVMC will continue advocating for funding for these programs by contacting appropriate members of the appropriations committees.

Advocate for Appropriate Funding for:

•   National Veterinary Medical Service Act (NVMSA)
•   Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD)
•   Formula 1433 Extramural Funding for Animal Health and Disease    Research
•   National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN)

The AAVMC has a long tradition of supporting adequate and appropriate federal funding for these four programs listed above. These programs are beneficial to the AAVMC member institutions and it is in the best interest of society for these programs to be properly funded. AAVMC will continue to support these important programs and encourage congressional appropriators to provide funding.

 

There is no proposed funding for these four programs in the administration's FY08 budget that has been presented to Congress. Since NVMSA has become law the administration has not proposed funding for the program and the funding that has been appropriated to date has been added during the appropriations committee hearing process.

UPDATE 8/31/07: The House passed version of the FY2008 Agriculture Appropriations Bill provided $1,000,000 for NVMSA.  The Senate Appropriations committee marked up their version of the spending bill with $750,000 for the program.  The full Senate has et to pass their version.

 

FARAD has been in existence for a number of years with a history of overall decreased funding along with being housed in more than one agency over time. This is another program that has received funding in most recent history through the appropriations committee hearing process.

 

Formula 1433 funds have also received level funding over the past few years through the appropriations process. Currently that program receives slightly more than 5 million dollars per year. AAVMC supports increasing funding for these funds.

 

The National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) was created through the cooperation of CSREES, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. The NAHLN, which began as a pilot project in 2002, is currently composed of just 12 state and university veterinary diagnostic laboratories linked together with a secure communication, reporting and alert system.

Animal Care and Welfare

The AAVMC supported the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007 (H.R. 137/S.261) which became law (PL 110-22) on May 3, 2007.  This legislation amends the federal criminal code to make it unlawful to knowlingly sponsor or exhibit an animal fighting venture if any animal venture was moved in interstate or foreign commerce.

The Captive Primate Safety Act (S. 1498) amends the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit interstate trade adn transportation in primates as pets.  AAVMC supports this legislation.

The Wildlife GAINS Act (S. 1246) establishes a wildlife global animal information network for surveillance internationally to combat the growing threat of emerging diseases that involve wild animals, such as bird flu, within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  Colleges of veterinary medicine are cited in two places in this bill.  The Administrator shall also request accredited colleges of veterinary medicine and other Wildlife GAINS partners to train members of the Wildlife GAINS network to monitor important wildlife areas around the world and test fo rthe presence or arrival of avian influenza and other significant pathogens of zoonotic concern or of concern to domestic or wild animals.

AAVMC Policy on Class B Dealers

Class B Dealers are strictly regulated under existing USDA animal welfare rule and provide animals for educational and research purposes for such important issues as cardiovascular studies, orthopedic studies, prostate cancer research, drug and therapy research for pets, and research into "orphan" genetic diseases.  Class B Dealers provide animals with a diverse gene pool that is required for some educational and research purposes.

Animals acquired from Class B Dealers contribute greatly to improving the health and welfare of both animals and human beings.  AAVMC believes there is ample justification for prudent and humane use of animals obtained from Class B Dealers in research and education.

Support for National Agriculture Food and Defense Act (NAFDA)

 

AAVMC supports the Support for National Agriculture Food and Defense Act (S. 1804).  This legislation sets out a national strategy to prepare for, detect, respond to and recover from an agroterror attack or catastrophic food emergency.  This bill builds state capabilities to rapidly detect and respond to such an attack while maintaining food safety standards.