S620-119

What This Bill Does

Adds a new public health veterinary services authority to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Indian Health Service, may spend funds directly or through Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act agreements to prevent and control zoonotic disease transmission in IHS service areas where disease risk in humans and wildlife is endemic. Covered services include spaying and neutering domestic animals, diagnosis, surveillance, epidemiology, control, prevention, elimination, vaccination, and work that reduces zoonotic disease or antimicrobial-resistance risks in humans, food, or animals.

Who Benefits and How

Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, families in IHS service areas, domestic animal owners, and rural communities benefit from access to veterinary public health services that can reduce rabies, other zoonotic disease risks, and antimicrobial-resistance risks before they become human public-health problems. The Indian Health Service can deploy Commissioned Corps veterinary public health officers to affected service areas and coordinate disease-surveillance and prevention work with CDC and USDA.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Indian Health Service must administer the funding authority, deploy or assign veterinary public health officers, coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Agriculture, collect disease-surveillance and service data, and submit biennial reports to four House and Senate committees. Commissioned Corps veterinary public health officers may be assigned to service areas, and federal taxpayers fund any services provided under the authority.

Key Provisions

• Defines public health veterinary services to include spaying, neutering, diagnosis, surveillance, epidemiology, control, prevention, elimination, vaccination, and antimicrobial-resistance work.
• Defines zoonotic disease as an infection naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans.
• Authorizes IHS to spend funds directly or through tribal self-determination agreements for veterinary public health services in endemic-risk service areas.
• Authorizes assignment or deployment of Commissioned Corps veterinary public health officers to IHS service areas.
• Requires coordination with CDC and USDA on public health veterinary activities.
• Requires biennial reports to Indian Affairs, HELP, Natural Resources, and Energy and Commerce committees on funds, officers, surveillance data, and services.