OPM addresses shortage of federal veterinarians

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday said a new direct-hire authority for agencies to recruit more veterinarians is part of a six-year hiring initiative.

Angela Bailey, OPM's deputy associate director for talent and capacity policy, said the agency authorized direct-hire authority in 2003 for veterinary medical officers hired at the General Schedule 9 through 13 grade levels at certain agencies. The direct-hire flexibility allows agencies with critical hiring needs to bypass certain rating and ranking procedures.

OPM has authorized direct-hire authority for veterinary medical officers in additional agencies since 2003, Bailey said. A Feb. 12 memo extended the authority to all veterinary medical officer jobs governmentwide at the General Schedule 11 through 15 grade levels.

Bailey contested claims in a GAO report released on Wednesday that said OPM had not conducted a governmentwide effort to address current and future veterinarian shortages identified by agencies. GAO included a response from OPM in its report in which OPM discussed its early efforts to recruit and retain more government vets and an ongoing study to assess the need for such staff governmentwide. GAO modified its report to reflect OPM's creation of a team to "determine the feasibility of issuing a governmentwide direct-hire authority for veterinarians," which the Feb. 12 memo implements.

Twenty-seven percent of the veterinarians at the Army; Food and Drug Administration; and the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Food Safety and Inspection Service, and Agricultural Research Service, will be eligible to retire by 2012, according to the report. And some of those agencies already are understaffed.

But Bailey said an OPM analysis of the federal veterinary workforce conducted last summer found that the shortage also stems from the fact that the number of veterinarians graduating from the nation's 28 veterinary schools is not keeping pace with demand. "We're competing for people who want to be pet vets," she said. "Our job is food safety inspection … to make sure the nation's food is protected."

Bailey added that while direct-hire authority is a positive first step in helping federal agencies address veterinary shortages, the key will be securing additional funding for other initiatives, such as student loan repayment programs, to attract veterinarians on the front end. She added that federal agencies also should be assessing whether certain tasks can be performed by other employees, such as veterinary technicians.

Bailey added that while OPM has a role in providing agencies with the tools and flexibilities needed to recruit and retain employees for mission-critical positions, it is ultimately up to the individual agencies to determine how to use them in their recruiting and hiring plans. "We just make their mission stronger by offering them different tools and educating them," Bailey said.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee plans to hold a hearing on the federal veterinarian shortage on Feb. 26.