S 620
Passed a chamber
Authorizes the Indian Health Service to fund veterinary public health services, such as vaccination and zoonotic disease surveillance, for Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations, and directs USDA to study how oral rabies vaccines can reach wildlife in Arctic regions.
Official title: Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act
Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions
House
Received
15-DEC-2025
Senate
Introduced
18-FEB-2025
Referred
18-FEB-2025
Approved by committee
05-MAR-2025
Reported
29-SEP-2025
On the calendar
29-SEP-2025
Passed
11-DEC-2025
- Adds Section 224 to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, letting the Secretary of Health and Human Services fund public health veterinary services through the Indian Health Service, including spaying and neutering, vaccination, diagnosis, and disease surveillance.
- Allows the Secretary to deploy veterinary public health officers from the Commissioned Corps and to coordinate with the CDC and the Secretary of Agriculture, and requires a biennial report to four congressional committees.
- Requires the Secretary of Agriculture, within one year of enactment, to study delivering oral rabies vaccines to wildlife that transmit rabies to Tribal members in Arctic regions, evaluate their efficacy, and recommend improvements.
- Amends the PREVENT Pandemics Act to add the Director of the Indian Health Service to the One Health framework provision alongside the existing federal officials.
Covers an older version. The newest CRS summary describes the bill as of "Introduced in Senate" (18-FEB-2025); the text has changed since (Engrossed in Senate, 11-DEC-2025).
CRS is the Library of Congress's nonpartisan research office. Read it on congress.gov- Indian Affairs Committee (Senate)
Native Americans
■ 3 D
3 Democrats