During 2022, the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) paid $9 million to ease the educational debt load of 89 veterinarians through the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program.  This program is intended to encourage veterinarians to enter areas of practice that are underserved.  These include food animal practice in rural areas and public health positions.  Since 2010 when the program was established by Congress, the NIFA has made 795 awards.  Many of the applicants have up to three years of practice after graduation although more recently new graduates are applying for support.

An anomaly in the veterinary program is that the awards are subject to federal tax unlike a parallel program for physicians and human-health providers.  The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, a bipartisan bill, was introduced mid-year that would, among other provisions, eliminate the federal tax and would increase funding to support veterinary services in rural areas. 

The $9 million expended in 2022 is less than one percent of direct expenditures by USDA in suppressing highly pathogenic avian influenza. The investment in the skills of young veterinarians, carrying student loan debt ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, pales in comparison to the magnitude of SNAP disbursements.