Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act

The bill would authorize the Department of Health and Human Services, acting through the Indian Health Service (IHS), to spend funds on public health veterinary services — including vaccinations, spaying and neutering of domestic animals, disease surveillance, and epidemiology — in IHS service areas where zoonotic disease risk is endemic. It would allow HHS to assign or deploy veterinary public health officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to those areas and to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Agriculture. HHS would be required to submit biennial reports to four congressional committees on spending, officer deployments, and disease surveillance data.

Separately, the bill would require the Department of Agriculture to complete a feasibility study within one year of enactment on delivering oral rabies vaccines to wildlife species connected to rabies transmission to tribal members in Arctic regions of the United States. It would also formally add the IHS Director as a coordinating agency in the National One Health Framework.

Tribal members and tribal communities in IHS service areas, particularly those in rural and Arctic regions facing elevated zoonotic disease risk. Veterinary public health officers in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps could be newly deployed to these areas. The IHS, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Wildlife Services, and the CDC would take on new responsibilities or coordination roles.

Tribal communities in rural and Arctic areas often lack access to veterinary infrastructure, which creates gaps in controlling diseases that spread from animals to people — including rabies. If enacted, the bill would give the IHS explicit authority and a funding pathway to provide these services, and the oral rabies vaccine feasibility study could lead to more targeted interventions for Alaska Native and other Arctic tribal populations where wildlife rabies transmission is a documented risk.

IHS would identify service areas with endemic zoonotic disease risk and either deliver veterinary services directly or fund them through tribal self-determination contracts under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The Secretary of HHS could request deployment of Commissioned Corps officers to those areas and would coordinate with CDC and USDA. Every two years, HHS must report to Congress on expenditures, officer assignments, and surveillance data. USDA must separately complete and publish its oral rabies vaccine feasibility study within one year of enactment.