H.R. 8473 — Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act

This section expresses the sense of Congress that the Indian Health Service is uniquely suited to empower Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations to address zoonotic disease threats in their communities by providing public health veterinary services through a One Health approach.

This section authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Indian Health Service, to expend funds—directly or through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act—for public health veterinary services (i.e., spaying and neutering domestic animals, diagnosis, surveillance, epidemiology, control, prevention, elimination, vaccination, and related activities to reduce zoonotic disease transmission or antimicrobial resistance) in Service areas where zoonotic disease risks to humans and wildlife are endemic. The section permits assignment or deployment of veterinary public health officers from the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service to such areas and coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Agriculture. The section also requires a biennial report to the Senate Committees on Indian Affairs and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committees on Natural Resources and Energy and Commerce on fund uses, officer deployments, zoonotic disease surveillance data, and related services provided.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct, not later than one year after the date of enactment, a feasibility study on delivering oral rabies vaccines to wildlife reservoir species connected to rabies transmission to Tribal members in Arctic regions of the United States. The study must evaluate vaccine efficacy and recommend improvements to delivery.

This section adds the Director of the Indian Health Service to the list of federal officials who must develop and carry out the One Health framework under section 2235(b) of the PREVENT Pandemics Act (previously, the list concluded with the Secretary of the Interior). (The framework integrates human, animal, and environmental health activities to improve pandemic preparedness.)