Q3 2025 AVMA House of Delegates Report
By Tim Smaha, D.V.M. AAIV Alternate Delegate to the AVMA HOD
The AVMA officers, board of directors, and house of delegates met in Washington DC in conjunction with the annual AVMA conference. The HOD meeting was a full two days of meeting with AVMA leadership that included legislative fly-in to meet with congress about two bills that AVMA is working to get passed in this congress.
On Thursday July 17th, the members of AVMA leadership and the house of delegates met with lawmakers from all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico to gain sponsorship and support for two bills currently in committee in this congress. The first is the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act which has bipartisan support. The bill would essentially help relieve rural veterinarians who work with public health or food animals of the tax burdens that they currently face. A similar bill was passed in 2002 for medical doctors, and this bill has been introduced in congress for several years under the name Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act. The second bill currently in congress is the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act. This bill is supported by the AVMA and aims to have Xylazine scheduled as a DEA schedule III drug as soon as possible and allow for protection of xylazine that is used for veterinary purposes.
During the meeting, election was held for President Elect of AVMA and Dr Jennifer Quammen was voted into office. The one council position which had an open vote included the Council on Veterinary Service (CoVS) recent graduate or emerging leader position. Dr Tara Fellows Barron- immediate past president of SCAVMA was elected into that position. The CoVS position for credentialed veterinary technician also had no nominations and will remain open.
The last election that took place was for the House Advisory Committee. There were three at large positions up for election and they were filled by Dr Stuart Brown and Dr Diana Thome being reelected for a second term. Dr Christopher Gargamelli of Boehringer Ingelheim was elected to the third HAC open position.
We also had nominations for Vice President elect and president elect and both saw one nominee- Dr Bob Knapp from Ohio for the President Elect position and Dr Elizabeth Boggier of New Jersey for Vice President Elect.
The conclusion was voting on a series of resolutions to existing policies that had been reviewed by the Food Animal Safety Committee and the Animal Welfare Committee. All resolutions passed and included minor modifications since committee review.
Pediatric Sterilization of Dogs, Cats and Rabbits
Therapeutic Pet Food Health Claims
Sow Housing
Declawing of Domestic Cats
Pain in Animals
There were several changes to the Model Veterinary Practice act that had been referred from the 2022 session. These were presented as a single resolution that encompassed rearrangement of the MVPA into relevant groups of sections, nomenclature for licensed veterinary technicians (and eliminating credentialed and registered to highlight the licensing process. A new section was added to the MVPA to further define telemedicine and the use of telemedicine in practice. The changes the MVPA were passed.
Please send any comments or questions to AAIV at industryvet@aaivet.org. As always, thank you for your support and we are here for you.