Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB620 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 620
5	5	To provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes and Tribal
6	6	organizations for rabies prevention, and for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	FEBRUARY18, 2025
9	9	Ms. M
10	10	URKOWSKI(for herself, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. SCHATZ)
11	11	introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
12	12	Committee on Indian Affairs
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes
15	15	and Tribal organizations for rabies prevention, and for
16	16	other purposes.
17	17	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
18	18	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
19	19	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
20	20	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterinary Services 4
21	21	to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act’’. 5
22	22	SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
23	23	It is the sense of Congress that the Indian Health 7
24	24	Service of the Department of Health and Human Services 8
25	25	is uniquely suited to empower Indian Tribes and Tribal 9
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28	28	•S 620 IS
29	29	organizations to address zoonotic disease threats in the 1
30	30	communities they serve by providing public health veteri-2
31	31	nary services through a One Health approach that recog-3
32	32	nizes the interconnection between people, animals, plants, 4
33	33	and their shared environment. 5
34	34	SEC. 3. PUBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERVICES. 6
35	35	Title II of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act 7
36	36	is amended by inserting after section 223 (25 U.S.C. 8
37	37	1621v) the following: 9
38	38	‘‘SEC. 224. PUBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERVICES. 10
39	39	‘‘(a) D
40	40	EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
41	41	‘‘(1) P
42	42	UBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERV -12
43	43	ICES.—The term ‘public health veterinary services’ 13
44	44	includes any of the following: 14
45	45	‘‘(A) Spaying and neutering services for 15
46	46	domestic animals. 16
47	47	‘‘(B) Diagnoses. 17
48	48	‘‘(C) Surveillance. 18
49	49	‘‘(D) Epidemiology. 19
50	50	‘‘(E) Control. 20
51	51	‘‘(F) Prevention. 21
52	52	‘‘(G) Elimination. 22
53	53	‘‘(H) Vaccination. 23
54	54	‘‘(I) Any other related service or activity 24
55	55	that reduces the risk of zoonotic disease trans-25
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58	58	•S 620 IS
59	59	mission or antimicrobial resistance in humans, 1
60	60	food, or animals. 2
61	61	‘‘(2) Z
62	62	OONOTIC DISEASE.—The term ‘zoonotic 3
63	63	disease’ means a disease or infection that may be 4
64	64	transmitted naturally from vertebrate animals to hu-5
65	65	mans, or from humans to vertebrate animals. 6
66	66	‘‘(b) A
67	67	UTHORIZATION FORVETERINARYSERVICES.— 7
68	68	The Secretary, acting through the Service, may expend 8
69	69	funds, directly or pursuant to the Indian Self-Determina-9
70	70	tion and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et 10
71	71	seq.), for public health veterinary services to prevent and 11
72	72	control zoonotic disease infection and transmission in 12
73	73	Service areas where the risk for disease occurrence in hu-13
74	74	mans and wildlife is endemic. 14
75	75	‘‘(c) P
76	76	UBLICHEALTHOFFICERS; COORDINATION.— 15
77	77	In providing public health veterinary services under sub-16
78	78	section (b), the Secretary may— 17
79	79	‘‘(1) assign or deploy veterinary public health 18
80	80	officers from the Commissioned Corps of the Public 19
81	81	Health Service to Service areas; and 20
82	82	‘‘(2) coordinate and implement activities with— 21
83	83	‘‘(A) the Director of the Centers for Dis-22
84	84	ease Control and Prevention; and 23
85	85	‘‘(B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 24
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89	89	‘‘(d) REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit to the 1
90	90	Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate, the Committee 2
91	91	on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, 3
92	92	the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Rep-4
93	93	resentatives, and the Committee on Energy and Commerce 5
94	94	of the House of Representatives a biennial report on the 6
95	95	use of funds, the assignment and deployment of veterinary 7
96	96	public health officers from the Commissioned Corps of the 8
97	97	Public Health Service, data related to the monitoring and 9
98	98	disease surveillance of zoonotic diseases, and related serv-10
99	99	ices provided under this section.’’. 11
100	100	SEC. 4. APHIS WILDLIFE SERVICES STUDY ON ORAL RABIES 12
101	101	VACCINES IN ARCTIC REGIONS OF THE 13
102	102	UNITED STATES. 14
103	103	Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 15
104	104	of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct a 16
105	105	feasibility study— 17
106	106	(1) on the delivery of oral rabies vaccines to 18
107	107	wildlife reservoir species that are directly or indi-19
108	108	rectly connected to the transmission of rabies to 20
109	109	Tribal members living in Arctic regions of the 21
110	110	United States; and 22
111	111	(2) that— 23
112	112	(A) evaluates the efficacy of the vaccines 24
113	113	described in paragraph (1); and 25
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117	117	(B) makes recommendations to improve 1
118	118	the delivery of those vaccines. 2
119	119	SEC. 5. ONE HEALTH FRAMEWORK. 3
120	120	Section 2235(b) of the Prepare for and Respond to 4
121	121	Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics 5
122	122	Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–37(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘and 6
123	123	the Secretary of the Interior’’ and inserting ‘‘, the Sec-7
124	124	retary of the Interior, and the Director of the Indian 8
125	125	Health Service’’. 9
126	126	Æ
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