GOP Rebels Push Back after Trump-era Loan Caps Leave Nursing out in the Cold

The Independent and Politico contributed to this report.

A slice of House Republicans is breaking ranks with the Trump administration over a student loan policy they say puts nursing — and patient care — at risk.

At issue is a provision tucked into President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which sets lifetime caps on federal student loans for graduate and professional degrees. When the Department of Education finalized the rules, nursing was left off the list of professions eligible for the highest borrowing limit.

That means future graduate nursing students would be capped at $100,000 in federal loans, while students in other “professional” programs can borrow up to $200,000. Critics say that gap no longer reflects reality, especially as advanced nursing programs keep getting more expensive.

Now, a group of Republicans is trying to fix it.

Leading the charge is Mike Lawler, a New York Republican backing legislation to add nursing — along with fields like occupational therapy, social work, audiology and physician assistant programs — to the Education Department’s professional-degree list.

“There’s a very easy way to solve this,” Lawler told Politico, calling the change “vital” as the country grapples with a health care workforce shortage. “I don’t think this is that controversial.”

He’s joined by fellow Republicans Jen Kiggans, Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick and Rob Bresnahan — all lawmakers from competitive districts who’ve shown a willingness to buck party leadership.

The group was also among 140 lawmakers who signed a bipartisan letter in December urging the Education Department to rethink the decision.

“At a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care, now is not the time to cut off the student pipeline,” the letter warned.

Kiggans, a nurse practitioner and vice co-chair of the House nursing caucus, said she personally raised the issue with Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent.

“I just really drove the point home that this is not inclusive of nurses,” she said. “It’s disrespectful to nurses. And we have a nursing shortage.”

Nursing groups agree. The American Nurses Association warned the policy “threatens the very foundation of patient care,” while the American Association of Colleges of Nursing said excluding nursing from the professional-degree category ignores decades of progress toward parity with other health professions.

Advanced degrees aren’t fringe credentials in nursing. Nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, midwives, educators and researchers often need graduate or doctoral training — and those programs can cost well over $100,000.

The Education Department has pushed back, saying the policy is being misunderstood. In a “myth vs. fact” release, officials argued that 95% of nursing students currently borrow below the new cap and wouldn’t be affected.

Spokesperson Ellen Keast also stressed that the “professional degree” label is an internal definition tied to loan limits — not a judgment about a field’s value.

“Congress chose not to change the existing definition of professional student,” Keast said, adding that lawmakers are free to amend the law if they want.

The department has also argued that unlimited borrowing under past programs helped fuel tuition increases — and that caps could eventually push costs down.

Critics say that logic ignores how health care education actually works. Clinical training is expensive and labor-intensive, requiring hospitals, instructors and hands-on supervision — costs schools can’t easily cut.

And while not every nurse needs a graduate degree, many of the roles that train future nurses do. Deans warn that tighter loan limits could shrink the pipeline of educators just as demand for nurses with advanced skills is set to explode. Federal data projects 35% job growth for advanced nursing roles over the next decade — far outpacing most occupations.

For now, the cap is scheduled to take effect July 1, 2026, giving lawmakers some runway to act. Whether Republican leadership — or the Trump administration — is willing to revisit the policy remains an open question.

But for this group of GOP lawmakers, the message is simple: if Washington says it values nurses, the loan rules should reflect that.