[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 204 (Monday, October 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53207-53210]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-22951]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Solicitation of Veterinary Shortage Situation Nominations for the
Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP)
AGENCY: National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA.
ACTION: Notice and solicitation for nominations.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is
soliciting nominations of veterinary service shortage situations for
the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) for fiscal year
(FY) 2019, as authorized under the National Veterinary Medical Services
Act (NVMSA). This notice initiates the nomination period and prescribes
the procedures and criteria to be used by eligible nominating officials
(State, Insular Area, DC and Federal Lands) to nominate veterinary
shortage situations. Each year all eligible nominating officials may
submit nominations, up to the maximum indicated for each entity in this
notice. NIFA is conducting this solicitation of veterinary shortage
situation nominations under an approved information collection (OMB
Control Number 0524-0050).
DATES: Shortage situation nominations must be submitted not later than
30 days after the publication of this notice.
ADDRESSES: Submissions must be made by clicking the submit button on
the Veterinarian Shortage Situation nomination form provided in the
[[Page 53208]]
VMLRP Shortage Situations section of the NIFA website at
www.nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp.
This form is sent as a data file directly to the Veterinary
Medicine Loan Repayment Program; National Institute of Food and
Agriculture; U.S. Department of Agriculture.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michelle Colby; National Program
Leader; National Institute of Food and Agriculture; U.S. Department of
Agriculture; STOP 2240 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC
20250-2220; Voice: 202-401-4202; Fax: 833-208-8205; Email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background and Purpose
Food supply veterinary medicine embraces a broad array of
veterinary professional activities, specialties and responsibilities,
and is defined as all aspects of veterinary medicine's involvement in
food supply systems, from traditional agricultural production to
consumption. A series of studies and reports 1 2 3 4 5 6
have drawn attention to maldistributions in the veterinary workforce
leaving some communities, especially rural areas, with insufficient
access to food supply veterinary services.
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\1\ Government Accountability Office, Veterinary Workforce:
Actions Are Needed to Ensure Sufficient Capacity for Protecting
Public and Animal Health, GAO-09-178: Feb. 18, 2009;
\2\ National Academies of Science, Workforce Needs in Veterinary
Medicine, 2013.
\3\ Andrus DM, Gwinner KP, Prince, JB. Food Supplyn Veterinary
Medicine Coaltion Report: Estimating FSM Demand and Maintaining the
Availability of Veterinarians in Food Supply Related Disciplines in
the United States and Canada, 2016. https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/References/Pages/Food-Supply-Veterinary-Medicine-Coalition-Report.aspx.
\4\ Andrus DM, Gwinner KP, Prince, JB. Future demand, probable
shortgages and strategies for creating a better future in food
supply veterinary medicine, 2006, JAVMA 229(1) :57-69.
\5\ Andrus DM, Gwinner KP, Prince, JB. Attracting students to
careers in food supply veterinary medicine. 2006, JAVMA 228(1)
:16931704.
\6\ Andrus DM, Gwinner KP, Prince, JB. Job satisfaction, changes
in occupational area and commitment to a career in food supply
veterinary medicine. 2006, JAVMA 228(12) :1884-1893.
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Two programs, born out of this concern, aim to mitigate the
maldistribution of the veterinary workforce: The Veterinary Medicine
Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) and Veterinary Services Grant Program
(VSGP), both administered by USDA-NIFA. VMLRP addresses increasing
veterinary school debt by offering veterinary school debt payments in
exchange for service in shortage situations, while VSGP addresses other
factors contributing to the maldistribution of veterinarians serving
the agricultural sector.
Specifically, the VSGP promotes availability and access to (1)
specialized education and training which will enable veterinarians and
veterinary technicians to provide services in designated veterinarian
shortage situations, and (2) practice-enhancing equipment and personnel
resources to enable veterinary practices to expand or improve access to
veterinary services.
Paperwork Reduction Act
In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
regulations (5 CFR part 1320) that implement the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the information collection and
recordkeeping requirements imposed by the implementation of these
guidelines have been approved by OMB Control Number 0524-0050.
Table of Contents in Guidelines for Veterinary Shortage Situation
Nominations
I. Preface and Authority
II. Nomination of Veterinary Shortage Situations
A. General
1. Eligible Shortage Situations
2. Authorized Respondents and Use of Consultation
3. State Allocation of Nominations
4. FY 2019 Shortage Situation Nomination Process
5. Submission and Due Date
6. Period Covered
7. Definitions
B. Nomination Form
C. NIFA Review of Shortage Situation Nominations
1. Review Panel Composition and Process
2. Review Criteria
Guidelines for Veterinary Shortage Situation Nominations
I. Preface and Authority
In January 2003, the National Veterinary Medical Service Act
(NVMSA) was passed into law adding section 1415A to the National
Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1997
(NARETPA). This law established a new Veterinary Medicine Loan
Repayment Program (7 U.S.C. 3151a) authorizing the Secretary of
Agriculture to carry out a program of entering into agreements with
veterinarians under which they agree to provide veterinary services in
veterinarian shortage situations in return for repayment of qualified
educational loans. In FY 2010, NIFA announced the first funding
opportunity for the VMLRP.
Section 7104 of the 2014 Farm Bill (Pub. L. 113-79) added section
1415B to NARETPA, as amended, (7 U.S.C. 3151b) to establish the
Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP). This amendment authorizes the
Secretary of Agriculture to make competitive grants to qualified
entities and individual veterinarians that carry out programs in
veterinarian shortage situations and for the purpose of developing,
implementing, and sustaining veterinary services. Funding for the VSGP
was first appropriated in FY 2016 through the Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2016 (Pub. L. 114-113).
Pursuant to the requirements enacted in the NVMSA of 2004 (as
revised), and the implementing regulation for this Act, Part 3431
Subpart A of the VMLRP Final Rule [75 FR 20239-20248], NIFA hereby
implements guidelines for eligible nominating officials to nominate
veterinary shortage situations for the FY 2018 program cycle.
II. Nomination of Veterinary Shortage Situations
A. General
1. Eligible Shortage Situations
Section 1415A of NARETPA, as amended and revised by Section 7105 of
the Food, Conservation and Energy Act, directs determination of
veterinarian shortage situations for the VMLRP to consider (1)
geographical areas that the Secretary determines have a shortage of
veterinarians; and (2) areas of veterinary practice that the Secretary
determines have a shortage of veterinarians, such as food animal
medicine, public health, epidemiology, and food safety. This section
also added that priority should be given to agreements with
veterinarians for the practice of food animal medicine in veterinarian
shortage situations.
While the NVMSA (as amended) specifies priority be given to food
animal medicine shortage situations, and that consideration also be
given to specialty areas such as public health, epidemiology and food
safety, the Act does not identify any areas of veterinary practice as
ineligible. Accordingly, all nominated veterinary shortage situations
will be considered eligible for submission.
A subset of the shortages designated for VMLRP applicants is also
available to satisfy requirements, as applicable, for VSGP applicants.
In addition, a shortage situation under the VSGP must also be
designated rural as defined in section 343(a) of the Consolidated Farm
and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1991(a)).
Nominations describing either public or private practice veterinary
shortage situations are eligible for submission.
[[Page 53209]]
2. Authorized Respondents and Use of Consultation
The only authorized respondent on behalf of each State is the chief
State Animal Health Official (SAHO), as duly authorized by the Governor
or the Governor's designee in each State. The only authorized
respondent on behalf of the Federal Government is the Chief Federal
Animal Health Officer (Deputy Administrator of Veterinary Services, the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or designee), as duly
authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture. The eligible nominating
official must submit nominations using the instructions provided in
section A.4, FY 2018 Shortage Situation Nomination Process. NIFA
strongly encourages the nominating officials to involve leading health
animal experts in the State in the identification and prioritization of
shortage situation nominations.
3. State Allocation of Nominations
NIFA will accept the number of nominations equivalent to the
maximum number of designated shortage areas for each State. For
historical background and more information on the rationale for capping
nominations and State allocation method, visit https://nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp-nomination-and-designation-veterinary-shortage-situations.
The maximum number of nominations (and potential designations) is
based on data from the 2012 Agricultural Census conducted by the USDA
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Awards from previous
years have no bearing on a State's maximum number of allowable shortage
nomination submissions or designations in any given year, or number of
nominations or designations allowed for subsequent years. NIFA reserves
the right in the future to proportionally adjust the maximum number of
designated shortage situations per State to ensure a balance between
available funds and the requirement to ensure that priority is given to
mitigating veterinary shortages corresponding to situations of greatest
need. Nomination Allocation tables for FY 2019 are available under the
VMLRP Shortage Situations section of the VMLRP website at https://nifa.usda.gov/resource/vmlrp-shortage-allocations.
Table I lists the maximum nomination allocations by State. Table II
lists ``Special Consideration Areas'' which include any State or
Insular Area not reporting data to NASS, reporting less than $1,000,000
in annual Livestock and Livestock Products Total Sales ($), and/or
possessing less than 500,000 acres. One nomination is allocated to any
State or Insular Area classified as a Special Consideration Area.
Table III shows the values and quartile ranks of States for two
variables broadly correlated with demand for food supply veterinary
services: ``Livestock and Livestock Products Total Sales ($)'' (LPTS)
and ``Land Area (acres)'' (LA). The maximum number of NIFA-designated
shortage situations per State is based on the sum of quartile rankings
for LPTS and LA for each State and can be found in Table IV.
While Federal Lands are widely dispersed within States and Insular
Areas across the country, they constitute a composite total land area
over twice the size of Alaska. If the 200-mile limit for U.S. coastal
waters and associated fishery areas are included, Federal Land total
acreage would exceed 1 billion. Both State and Federal Animal Health
officials have responsibilities for matters relating to terrestrial and
aquatic food animal health on Federal Lands. Interaction between
wildlife and domestic livestock, such as sheep and cattle, is
particularly common in the plains States where significant portions of
Federal lands are leased for grazing. Therefore, both SAHOs and the
Chief Federal Animal Health Officer (Deputy Administrator of Veterinary
Services, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or designee)
may submit nominations to address shortage situations on or related to
Federal Lands. Nominations related to Federal Lands submitted by SAHOs
will count towards the maximum number of nominations for that
individual state.
NIFA emphasizes that the shortage nomination allocation is set to
broadly balance the number of designated shortage situations across
States prior to the nomination and award phases of the VMLRP and VSGP.
Awards will be made based strictly on the peer review panel's
assessment according to each program's review criteria; thus no State
will be given a preference for placement of awardees. Additionally,
each designated shortage situation will be limited to one award per
program.
4. FY 2019 Shortage Situation Nomination Process
For the FY 2019 program cycle, all eligible nominating officials
submitting may: (1) Request to retain designated status for any
shortage situation successfully designated in FY 2018 and/or (2) submit
new nominations. Any shortage from FY 2018 not retained or submitted as
a new nomination will not be considered a shortage situation in FY
2019. The total number of new nominations plus designated nominations
retained (carried over) may not exceed the maximum number of
nominations each eligible nominating official is permitted.
The following process is the mechanism for retaining a designated
nomination: Each nominating official should review the map of VMLRP
designated shortage situations for FY 2018 (https://go.usa.gov/xUhqW)
and download a PDF copy of the nomination form for each designated area
that remains open (not awarded) in FY 2018. If the nominating official
wishes to retain (carry over) one or more designated nomination(s), the
nominating official shall copy and paste the prior year information
into the current year's nomination form and select ``SUBMIT''.
Both new and retained nominations must be submitted on the
Veterinary Shortage Situation Nomination form provided in the VMLRP
Shortage Situations section at https://nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp-shortage-situations.
Nominations retained (carried over) will be designated without
review unless major changes in content are identified during
administrative processing or the shortage has been retained for three
years. Major changes in content or shortages already retained for three
consecutive years will be treated as new submissions and undergo merit
review.
5. Submission and Due Date
Submissions must be made by clicking the submit button on the
Veterinarian Shortage Situation nomination form provided in the VMLRP
Shortage Situations section at https://nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp-shortage-situations. This form is sent as a data file directly to the Veterinary
Medicine Loan Repayment Program; National Institute of Food and
Agriculture; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Shortage situation
nominations. Both new and retained (carry-over) nominations must be
submitted not later than 30 days after the publication of this notice.
7. Period Covered
Each shortage situation is approved for one program year cycle
only. However, any previously approved shortage situation not filled in
a given program year may be resubmitted as a retained (carry-over)
nomination. Retained (carry-over) shortage nominations (without any
revisions) will be automatically approved for up to three years before
requiring another merit review. By resubmitting a carry-over
nomination, the nominating official is affirming that in his or her
professional judgment the original case
[[Page 53210]]
made for shortage status, and the original description of needs, remain
current and accurate.
8. Definitions
For the purpose of implementing the solicitation for veterinary
shortage situations, the definitions provided in 7 CFR part 3431 are
applicable.
B. Nomination Form
The VMLRP Shortage Nomination Form must be used to nominate
veterinarian shortage situations. Once designated as a shortage
situation, VMLRP applicants will use the information to select shortage
situations they are willing and qualified to fill, and to guide the
preparation of their applications. NIFA will use the information to
assess contractual compliance of awardees. The form is available in the
VMLRP Shortage Situations section at https://nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp-shortage-situations. See Part II A. 5. for submission information.
Detailed directions for each field can be found at https://nifa.usda.gov/resource/vmlrp-veterinarian-shortage-situation-nomination-form-form-nifa-2009-0001.
C. NIFA Review of Shortage Situation Nominations
1. Review Panel Composition and Process
NIFA will convene a panel of food supply veterinary medicine
experts from Federal and/or State agencies, and an institution
receiving Animal Health and Disease Research Program funds under
section 1433 of NARETPA, to review the nominations and make
recommendations to the NIFA Program Manager. NIFA will review the
panel's recommendations and designate the VMLRP shortage situations.
The list of approved shortage situations will be made available on the
VMLRP website at www.nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp.
2. Review Criteria
Criteria used by the shortage situation nomination review panel and
NIFA for certifying a veterinary shortage situation will be consistent
with the information requested in the shortage situations nomination
form. NIFA understands the process for defining the risk landscape
associated veterinary service shortages within a State may require
consideration of many qualitative and quantitative factors. In
addition, each shortage situation will be characterized by a different
array of subjective and objective supportive information that must be
developed into a cogent case identifying, characterizing, and
justifying a given geographic or disciplinary area as deficient in
certain types of veterinary capacity or service. To accommodate the
uniqueness of each shortage situation, the nomination form provides
opportunities to present a case using both supportive metrics and
narrative explanations to define and explain the proposed need.
While NIFA anticipates some arguments made in support of a given
shortage situation will be qualitative, respondents are encouraged to
present verifiable quantitative and qualitative evidentiary information
wherever possible. Absence of quantitative data such as animal and
veterinarian census data for the proposed shortage area(s) may lead the
panel to recommend disapproval of the shortage nomination.
The maximum point value that panelists may award for each element
is as follows:
20 points: Describe the objectives of a veterinarian to meet the
needs of the shortage situation in the community, area, State/insular
area, or position requested above.
20 points: Describe the activities required of a veterinarian to
meet the needs of the shortage situation located in the community,
area, State/insular area, or position requested above.
5 points: Describe any past efforts to recruit and retain a
veterinarian to achieve the objectives and activities in the shortage
situation identified above.
35 points: Describe the risk of this veterinarian position not
being filled or retained. Include the risk(s) to the production of a
safe and wholesome food supply and/or to animal, human, and
environmental health not only in the community but in the region,
State/insular area, nation, and/or international community. Type III
shortages should comment on the need for and indicators of retention
for individual shortage situations, as Type III shortages are unique
and traditional retention indicators do not necessarily apply.
An additional 20 points will be used to evaluate overall merit/
quality of the case made for each nomination.
Robert Holland,
Associate Director for Operations, National Institute of Food and
Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2018-22951 Filed 10-19-18; 8:45 am]
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