Leonard L. Boswell: “There are an estimated 283 million pets and 2.3 billion farm animals in our country. That's a lot of animals, Frank…”

“There are an estimated 283 million pets and 2.3 billion farm animals in our country. That's a lot of animals, Frank, don't you think? It is. There are nearly 86,000 veterinarians in the U.S.; however, the majority of them focus on pets--cats and dogs. Twenty-eight veterinary schools in the country, and something that's very important to this legislation, veterinary graduates have an average debt of $120,000. So I think this is something that we ought to be aware of when we think of food safety and so on. So the demand for large animal veterinarians is increasing, and the lack of these faceless in many areas of the country will continue to put our agricultural economy and the safety of our food supply at risk. H.R. 3519, the Veterinary Services Investment Act, will help address this shortage and continue to ensure Americans have access to the safest, most plentiful, and most available food supply in the world. So I urge all of my colleagues to support this important legislation.”