Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHRADER. Mr. Speaker, this really was a truly bipartisan, bicameral effort, including, as you have already heard, an impressive coalition ranging from the American Farm Bureau and the ASPCA down to all 50 State veterinary medical associations.

It is nice, I think the public should be reminded, that while we have great differences in this body on many issues, there are also a lot of issues we agree on. I think this first 6 months has been a very productive session for this Congress, and this particular bill I think is noteworthy.

It is a little bit of a shame we are actually here in the early stages of the Drug Enforcement Agency's efforts to control the distribution and abuse of controlled substances. They issued a very blanket type of rule that, unfortunately, scooped up veterinary medicine and animals. We have been able to avoid this issue for many, many years. It is one of those where for the last 100-150 years veterinarians have gone out to the farms and ranches--nowadays, even within the cities, going home to home with mobile veterinary clinics--making sure those patients got the care with the appropriate medication that they deserve to be treated humanely.

DEA, in its exuberance, unfortunately, was unwilling to grant a waiver, a commonsense waiver, administratively, and forced Congressman Yoho and myself to go to a statutory change--lots of taxpayer money, lots of time by the committees. But it, unfortunately, is necessary. The good news I think for America is that common sense does prevail a lot of times in this great Congress. As alluded to, they have over 185 cosponsors of this legislation, the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act, allowing veterinarians simply to do what they have done before, which is carry controlled substances safely to treat, dispense, and protect their patients in the field.

I think America would wonder why we are here. I think America is glad we are here, making sure that their pets, their livestock, get the care and treatment they need so they can have safe food and fiber and take care of the pets that they love and live with on a daily basis.

I am not going to go into the bill itself. I think Mr. Pitts did an excellent job of outlining things, as did Mr. Green.

I want to make sure I recognize a few folks that have been critical in the role here getting this to the floor. First and foremost, my good friend and colleague, Ted Yoho from Florida, and his right-hand man, Larry Calhoun, did a yeoman's job making sure this was a good bipartisan effort; Chairman Goodlatte and his staff for their unwavering support throughout the process; Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Peterson were invaluable--as a matter of fact, I think we had all but four members of the Agriculture Committee sign on, Republican, Democrat, city, rural; this is a great bill--Senators Moran and King for their efforts on the Senate side; Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Waxman on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

And finally, I extend my personal gratitude and a very special thank you to Dr. Ashley Morgan at the American Veterinary Medical Association for her tireless efforts through several years' worth of time to make sure that this bill actually got to the floor and got the vote that our animal friends actually deserve and, frankly, on behalf of all veterinarians in this great country.

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