II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 620
To provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes and Tribal
organizations for rabies prevention, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY18, 2025
Ms. M
URKOWSKI(for herself, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. SCHATZ)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Indian Affairs
A BILL
To provide public health veterinary services to Indian Tribes
and Tribal organizations for rabies prevention, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterinary Services 4
to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of Congress that the Indian Health 7
Service of the Department of Health and Human Services 8
is uniquely suited to empower Indian Tribes and Tribal 9
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organizations to address zoonotic disease threats in the 1
communities they serve by providing public health veteri-2
nary services through a One Health approach that recog-3
nizes the interconnection between people, animals, plants, 4
and their shared environment. 5
SEC. 3. PUBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERVICES. 6
Title II of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act 7
is amended by inserting after section 223 (25 U.S.C. 8
1621v) the following: 9
‘‘SEC. 224. PUBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERVICES. 10
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
‘‘(1) P
UBLIC HEALTH VETERINARY SERV -12
ICES.—The term ‘public health veterinary services’ 13
includes any of the following: 14
‘‘(A) Spaying and neutering services for 15
domestic animals. 16
‘‘(B) Diagnoses. 17
‘‘(C) Surveillance. 18
‘‘(D) Epidemiology. 19
‘‘(E) Control. 20
‘‘(F) Prevention. 21
‘‘(G) Elimination. 22
‘‘(H) Vaccination. 23
‘‘(I) Any other related service or activity 24
that reduces the risk of zoonotic disease trans-25
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mission or antimicrobial resistance in humans, 1
food, or animals. 2
‘‘(2) Z
OONOTIC DISEASE.—The term ‘zoonotic 3
disease’ means a disease or infection that may be 4
transmitted naturally from vertebrate animals to hu-5
mans, or from humans to vertebrate animals. 6
‘‘(b) A
UTHORIZATION FORVETERINARYSERVICES.— 7
The Secretary, acting through the Service, may expend 8
funds, directly or pursuant to the Indian Self-Determina-9
tion and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et 10
seq.), for public health veterinary services to prevent and 11
control zoonotic disease infection and transmission in 12
Service areas where the risk for disease occurrence in hu-13
mans and wildlife is endemic. 14
‘‘(c) P
UBLICHEALTHOFFICERS; COORDINATION.— 15
In providing public health veterinary services under sub-16
section (b), the Secretary may— 17
‘‘(1) assign or deploy veterinary public health 18
officers from the Commissioned Corps of the Public 19
Health Service to Service areas; and 20
‘‘(2) coordinate and implement activities with— 21
‘‘(A) the Director of the Centers for Dis-22
ease Control and Prevention; and 23
‘‘(B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 24
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‘‘(d) REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit to the 1
Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate, the Committee 2
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, 3
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Rep-4
resentatives, and the Committee on Energy and Commerce 5
of the House of Representatives a biennial report on the 6
use of funds, the assignment and deployment of veterinary 7
public health officers from the Commissioned Corps of the 8
Public Health Service, data related to the monitoring and 9
disease surveillance of zoonotic diseases, and related serv-10
ices provided under this section.’’. 11
SEC. 4. APHIS WILDLIFE SERVICES STUDY ON ORAL RABIES 12
VACCINES IN ARCTIC REGIONS OF THE 13
UNITED STATES. 14
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 15
of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct a 16
feasibility study— 17
(1) on the delivery of oral rabies vaccines to 18
wildlife reservoir species that are directly or indi-19
rectly connected to the transmission of rabies to 20
Tribal members living in Arctic regions of the 21
United States; and 22
(2) that— 23
(A) evaluates the efficacy of the vaccines 24
described in paragraph (1); and 25
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(B) makes recommendations to improve 1
the delivery of those vaccines. 2
SEC. 5. ONE HEALTH FRAMEWORK. 3
Section 2235(b) of the Prepare for and Respond to 4
Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics 5
Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–37(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘and 6
the Secretary of the Interior’’ and inserting ‘‘, the Sec-7
retary of the Interior, and the Director of the Indian 8
Health Service’’. 9
Æ
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