Veterinary Workforce Act Introduced in Congress

March 13, 2007 — 

The U.S. Congress has introduced legislation to help address the critical shortage of public health veterinarians. The Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act of 2007 (S. 746/H.R. 1232) was introduced by Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives respectively.

If passed, the Act will establish a competitive federal grants program to build research, diagnostic and training capacity in the nation's veterinary medical colleges. This funding would allow for the construction of classrooms, teaching facilities, and diagnostic and research laboratories necessary to increase the number of veterinarians trained each year. The 28 veterinary colleges in the U.S. currently graduate only 2500 veterinarians annually which is not enough to meet the future estimated needs.

According to a number of recent studies, the U.S. is facing a critical shortage of veterinarians in public health practice areas such as food safety and security, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness, environmental health, regulatory medicine, diagnostic laboratory medicine, food systems veterinary medicine and biomedical research. This legislation is supported by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

To comment on this legislation, please contact your congressional representatives.