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The House Appropriations Committee advanced a spending bill Tuesday that would force the Education Department to classify advanced nursing programs as professional degrees, a designation that would let those students borrow more in student loans than the current caps allow.
Under student loan changes taking effect July 1, 2026, federal graduate school borrowing is split into two tiers. Professional students can take out up to $50,000 a year and $200,000 over a lifetime. Other graduate programs are capped at $20,500 a year and $100,000 total. Which tier a program lands in now directly determines how much a student can borrow to pay for it.
Without this bill, graduate nursing programs would be classified in the graduate tier, despite their higher costs and higher earning potential. It’s important to note that this bill specifically applies to graduate nursing school, not undergraduate nursing degrees.
Catch Up
Earlier this year, the Education Department finalized a rule that excluded graduate nursing (along with several other fields) from its list of professional degrees. Lawmakers in both parties argued the final list was too narrow and warned it would deepen shortages of nurses and other health workers. The regulation has already drawn at least three lawsuits.
The Details
The provision was added as an amendment (PDF File) to the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill funding the Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments. It bars the department from using funds to run Title IV aid programs in any way that does not treat advanced nursing programs as professional degrees.
The text defines an “advanced nursing program” as a post-baccalaureate program preparing students for advanced practice registered nursing licensure, certification, or authorization. It specifically includes fields such as:
- Nurse Practitioner
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Certified Nurse-Midwife
- Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
- Other Advanced Practice Nurse Programs
The Big Picture
The fight has moved into the courts. More than two dozen states sued the Education Department in May, asking a judge to strike down its regulatory definition of “professional degree.” A coalition of nursing organizations filed a similar suit later that month, and in June two associations representing physician associates sued to have their programs declared professional degrees as well.
Trump administration officials have argued the borrowing caps will pressure schools to lower tuition, pointing to examples like Neumann University, which cut tuition on three graduate programs (two of them in nursing) by 15% to 29% in May.
What’s Next
The appropriations bill still has a long path through Congress. Overall, it would provide $70.7 billion in discretionary funding to the Education Department, a 10% cut, while raising the maximum Pell Grant by $50 to $7,445. It would also end subsidized loans for undergraduates and cut work-study and supplemental opportunity grants.
The professional-versus-graduate split is one of the biggest practical questions for borrowers heading into the new rules. As The College Investor has reported, the designation can mean a $100,000 difference in lifetime federal borrowing capacity for an identical-cost program. With 23 states already suing and Congress now weighing in, where each program lands is far from settled and students enrolling for fall 2026 are the ones caught in the middle.
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