A faction of Republican lawmakers in the United States is mounting a challenge against a contentious policy from the Trump administration that imposes a strict borrowing limit on graduate nursing students.
Loan Cap Sparks Bipartisan Backlash
The provision, embedded within President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", established lifetime borrowing caps for students on graduate and professional degree courses. In a move that has ignited fury across the nursing profession, the US Department of Education excluded nursing from its list of "professional" degrees eligible for the highest loan limit of $200,000.
Consequently, those pursuing advanced nursing qualifications are restricted to borrowing a maximum of $100,000. Nursing organisations argue this sum is insufficient to cover the costs of some critical advanced programs, effectively blocking access to further education.
Lawmakers and Nurses Decry "Disrespectful" Policy
Leading the charge is GOP Representative Mike Lawler of New York. He is sponsoring legislation, alongside four other Republican colleagues, to add nursing to the Education Department's professional degrees list. This list also controversially omitted occupational therapy, social work, audiology, and physician assistant programs.
Lawler told Politico the fix was straightforward and "vital", especially amid a national healthcare shortage. He is joined by allies including Reps. Jen Kiggans of Virginia, a nurse practitioner, Don Bacon of Nebraska, and Brian Fitzpatrick and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania.
This group was among 140 lawmakers who signed a bipartisan letter on 12 December urging the department to reconsider. The letter starkly warned that cutting off the student pipeline to these programs was ill-timed given the healthcare crisis.
Representative Kiggans was particularly scathing, stating she directly told Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent in November that the exclusion was "not inclusive of nurses" and was "disrespectful to nurses." She emphasised the acute nursing shortage facing the nation.
Nursing Bodies Warn of Threat to Patient Care
The policy has drawn fierce condemnation from leading nursing associations. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, said limiting funding for graduate nursing education "threatens the very foundation of patient care" during a historic shortage.
Similarly, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing argued the move disregards decades of progress toward parity in health professions. Mary Turner, RN, president of National Nurses United, told The Independent the administration's priorities were "at odds with the needs of nurses and patients," criticising it for making education harder to access.
In response to the backlash, the Education Department issued a statement claiming "95 percent of nursing students" borrow below the annual limit and are unaffected. Press Secretary Ellen Keast clarified the "professional degree" tag was an internal definition for loan limits, not a value judgement, and noted Congress could amend the law.
If unchanged, the new measures are scheduled to take effect from 1 July 2026.
