S. 620: Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act

119th Congress · introduced 2025-02-18 · Native Americans · Latest: Held at the desk.

federal

Official title

Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act

Plain 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.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK] · 3 cosponsors

Money: CBO cost estimate: S. 620, Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act (2025-08-13) No linked contracts or vendors yet.

Words on this page, explained (1)

Bill: A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

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Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-119s620.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/119/s>

Record fed-us-cong119-s620 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills