S620Passed Senate
Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act
Introduced
In Committee
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both5
Signed into Law119th
Congress
2025-02-18
Introduced
3
Cosponsors
S
ⓘType
Sponsor
Lisa Murkowski
Republican · AK · Senator
Votes with party: 29.3% (317 recorded votes)
Full profile: /officials/M001153
Source: Congress.gov · FEC
Cosponsors (3)
Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.
Latest Action
The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →
Committee Activity
Currently in
- Senate Committee on Indian AffairsReported By · 2025-09-29
Previously
- Indian Affairs CommitteeReported By · 2025-09-29
- Indian Affairs CommitteeMarkup By · 2025-03-05
- Senate Committee on Indian AffairsMarkup By · 2025-03-05
- Indian Affairs CommitteeReferred To · 2025-02-18
- Senate Committee on Indian AffairsReferred To · 2025-02-18
Plain-English Summary
Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act This bill expands support for public health veterinary services (e.g., disease surveillance or vaccination) in tribal communities to address zoonotic infectious diseases (i.e., diseases that spread between humans and animals). Specifically, the bill authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Indian Health Service (IHS), to expend funds for public health veterinary services to prevent and control zoonotic disease infection and transmission in IHS areas where the risk for disease occurrence in humans and wildlife is endemic. HHS may assign or deploy veterinary public health officers from the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps to IHS areas. Additionally, HHS must submit a biennial report to Congress on the use of funds, the assignment and deployment of veterinary public health officers from the USPHS Commissioned Corps, data related to the monitoring and disease surveillance of zoonotic diseases, and related services. The bill also includes the IHS as a coordinating agency in the National One Health Framework. (This framework addresses zoonotic diseases and advances public health preparedness in the United States.) The bill requires the Department of Agriculture to conduct a feasibility study on the delivery of oral rabies vaccines to wildlife reservoir species that are connected to the transmission of rabies to tribal members living in Arctic regions of the United States. The study must (1) evaluate the efficacy of the oral rabies vaccines, and (2) make recommendations to improve the delivery of these vaccines.
Plain-English rewrite of the Congressional Research Service summary published on Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed.
Subjects
Native Americans
Full bill text is not yet cached locally.
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