Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3519, the Veterinarian Services Investment Act, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Since the fall of 2000, the Committee on Agriculture has worked on ways of resolving the serious veterinary shortage problem confronting many rural communities. With the passage of the National Veterinary Medical Service Act in December of 2003, a program was finally authorized to incentivize large animal veterinarians to practice in communities that USDA designated as veterinarian shortage areas. With this program in place, large animal veterinarians are able to apply on a competitive basis for educational loan repayment assistance in exchange for their commitment to practice in shortage areas for the length of time as established by the regulations. While it's unfortunate that it took almost 6 years for USDA to establish a final rule implementing this first step, I'm optimistic that when the first awards are issued in the coming weeks, we'll begin a slowdown and hopefully reverse this problem. To the extent that the loan program is successful, it's important to consider that this was just the first step. While this assistance will be very helpful in attracting veterinarians to these communities, there remain gaps in veterinarian recruitment, attracting and training technical support staff, and simply meeting the long-term costs of operating veterinarian practices in these communities.…”