Rural America needs veterinarians: Congress can help

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) designated my hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn. – where I owned a mixed-animal veterinary practice treating pets and farm animals for 35 years – as an official veterinary shortage situation. 

Grand Rapids, and the surrounding six-county area, received this designation because the Minnesota state veterinarian reports there are currently only two nearby veterinary practices available to treat farm animals at the region’s 3,200 registered livestock premises.

These numbers mean that farmers and ranchers may have trouble accessing the preventive veterinary care necessary to keep their animals healthy and productive – and the timely veterinary care necessary to quickly respond to animal health emergencies, like disease outbreaks. Over time, this could have serious economic consequences for agricultural communities.

Grand Rapids is hardly unique in this challenge. In 2019, the USDA designated 190 regions across 44 states as suffering from similar, and sometimes much more severe, shortages of food animal and public health veterinarians. For instance, the North Dakota state veterinarian reports that in North Dakota’s Bowman and Slope counties, there is only one food animal veterinarian – who is nearing retirement age – to serve the region’s more than 80,000 beef cattle.

Many factors may contribute to the need for more food animal and public health veterinarians in certain areas, but there’s one factor that undoubtedly plays a role: student debt. Today, veterinarians who take out loans graduate with around $180,000 in debt on average. This heavy student debt load can make it financially challenging for veterinarians to work in food animal and public health careers, which typically pay less than companion animal careers in urban areas.

While this is concerning, the good news is we have a federal program in place that’s helping address this issue: the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). This program provides loan repayment assistance to food animal and public health veterinarians who commit to practicing at least three years in veterinary shortage areas that are nominated by state veterinarians and designated by the USDA, providing them with the financial help they need to commit to a rural veterinary career or even purchase a rural veterinary practice. 

The data shows this strategy is working. To date, the program has placed nearly 500 veterinarians in high-need areas. About 80 percent of veterinarians who completed their three years in 2016 said they would stay in their communities, providing veterinary care to local ranchers and farmers for years to come.

But the program could be more effective than it is now. While we appreciate the generous funding for the VMLRP provided by Congress, demand for the program routinely exceeds capacity – leaving dozens of rural communities each year with inadequate access to veterinary care.

Thankfully, there’s an easy way to expand the program’s reach without expanding its budget footprint: Congress can pass the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act (S. 1163/H.R. 2746), which would lift a 37 percent federal withholding tax applied to the awards and paid for by the USDA out of the program’s appropriated funds. This tax diverts critical funding from the program.

If the tax were removed, the 37 percent of the appropriated funds currently used to pay the withholding tax would be readily available to help place more veterinarians in high-need areas, better utilizing the funding that Congress has provided. The legislation wouldn’t change the program – it would simply increase its efficiency and build upon what’s already working.

Congress has recognized the value of removing withholding taxes from service awards before. In 2004, Congress made loan repayment awards through the National Health Service Corps program exempt from withholding taxes.

When farmers and ranchers can’t access timely veterinary care, the consequences aren’t isolated to rural communities. From lost dollars in our national economy to disease outbreaks that could threaten public health, veterinary shortages can impact every single American, no matter where they live. Passing the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act is a common-sense solution to this serious problem. Congress shouldn’t miss this opportunity.

Dr. John Howe is President of the American Veterinary Medical Association.