National Institute of Food and Agriculture October 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting stakeholder input on the recent implementation of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) authorized under section 1415A of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3151a). The purpose of this program is for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enter into agreements with veterinarians under which the veterinarians agree to provide, for a specific period of time as identified in the agreement, veterinary services in veterinarian shortage situations. As part of the stakeholder input process, NIFA is conducting a public meeting to solicit comments regarding the processes developed and implemented for the first application cycle that concluded with the first group of awards under this program in September 2010. Input collected will be used to modify and improve processes for subsequent calls of shortage situation nominations and request for applications.