Friday, Jan. 22 kicks off the 45-day nomination solicitation period, as authorized by the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA) passed into law in January 2003. This law established a new VMLRP, allowing 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. Additional key dates of the program include: March 8 - submission deadline for nominations. . April 30 - publication in the Federal Register of the Notice of Selected Veterinarian Shortage Situations (also on NIFA website). . June 30 - application period closes. . September 30 - offers made to selected individual veterinarian applicants and agreements executed. The goal of the program is to make educational loan repayment agreements with veterinarians who choose to provide veterinary services in veterinarian shortage situations for a determined period of time. A cumulative total of approximately $9.6 million is available for NIFA to administer this program, according to the department of agriculture. Shortage situation nominations must be submitted to the Office of Extramural Programs; NIFA; U.S. Department of Agriculture. The nominations must be submitted by e-mail to vmlrp@nifa.usda.gov. Click here for the veterinary shortage situation nomination form available in the Shortage Situations section. <HOME>
