USDA cow

U.S. Department of Agriculture photo by Scott Bauer, Agricultural Research Service

The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program seeks to attract food animal veterinarians to underserved areas.

After skipping a cycle selecting applicants for the first time in its 15-year history, a federal incentive program to draw veterinarians to work in rural, underserved regions of the United States is coming back online.

The return of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) was announced in a Rural Veterinary Action Plan issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 28 to strengthen the rural food animal veterinary workforce.

The VMLRP's pause occurred as Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins reviewed USDA programs under an effort by the Trump administration to cut federal programs and spending. The review interrupted the normal application cycle. The VMLRP normally begins accepting new applications each February. Between 2010 and 2022, the program made awards to 795 recipients.

Historically, the VMLRP has granted $25,000 per year for three years to veterinarians who commit to work with food animals in an area designated as having a veterinary shortage. The aim of the program is to address a longstanding shortage of food animal veterinarians across the country. The funds are designated to pay student debt, which can be staggering. Of the more than 83% of 2024 veterinary graduates who had student debt, their average amount owed was $202,647, with some owing double that, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association's latest Economic State of the Profession report.

This year, the VMLRP website shows the annual award as $40,000 rather than $25,000 as before. The USDA did not specify when the $40,000 amount would go into effect.

Rollins announced on Aug. 28 that the USDA would commit an additional $15 million to the program as an investment in rural areas. The addition is more than the program's annual appropriation, which in 2024 was $9.5 million. Rollins did not specify the timeline for the infusion nor how the funds would be applied.

However, the plan implies the money would go toward making more awards. It states: "While there were 170 applicants for VMLRP in FY2024 that were willing to serve in these high-priority veterinary shortage situations, USDA is only able to make around 65 awards to private and public practicing food animal veterinarians each year with the funding currently available." (The program made 114 awards in 2024, according to the USDA's annual VMLRP report. "Around 65" is the average number of awards made each year since the program started in 2010.)

A separate Sept. 2 update confirmed that no applications would be accepted or reviewed in fiscal year 2025, but that the program would pick up with the 2026 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. A USDA spokesperson told the VIN News Service in May that awards already committed to would be funded. The September update also stated that the unused appropriation from 2025 will be combined with the 2026 appropriation. Asked whether the funds that would have been committed in 2025, had applications been accepted as usual, are part of the $15 million being added to the program, the USDA did not respond.

USDA-designated shortage areas are nominated by state animal health officials. Dr. Ethan Andress, the state veterinarian in North Dakota, commenting on the status of the VMLRP, told VIN News by email, "Obviously, we are happy that the money will be utilized and not lost but disappointed veterinarians and communities will not benefit in the current year."

Heather Lansdowne, spokesperson for the Kansas state animal health commissioner, Dr. Justin Smith, said the USDA assured them that the shortage areas in Kansas that were approved for 2025 will be rolled into 2026.

"This program has been very fruitful for Kansas in helping us to retain veterinarians in underserved areas of Kansas," Lansdowne wrote in an email. "The state gets significant value from the VMLRP, and we will continue to watch the 2025 funding as we move into 2026 to ensure that we don't lose this value."

The Rural Veterinary Action Plan espouses a dual goal of strengthening the rural food animal veterinary workforce and increasing the number of veterinarians employed by the USDA.

"The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) rely on veterinarians to carry out their mission of protecting livestock and poultry from diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and the New World screwworm (NWS) and protecting public health," the plan introduction states. "The inability to fill veterinary positions in both rural areas and the federal government is alarming and threatens our supply chain."

The plan comes a few months after the administration fired a number of USDA veterinarians as part of an effort to shrink the federal workforce.