{"id":681,"date":"2026-06-25T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=681"},"modified":"2026-06-25T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:45:08","slug":"federal-judge-halts-rule-limiting-grad-student-loan-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=681","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Halts Rule Limiting Grad Student Loan Access"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal judge temporarily suspended a key provision of an Education Department on Thursday, potentially opening the door for students pursuing nursing and other medical graduate degrees to qualify for more federal student loans, less than a week before the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping borrowing limits were due to take effect July 1.<\/p>\n

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U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled<\/u><\/span> that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims that the government\u2019s definition of \u201c\u2018professional degree\u2019 is contrary to law\u201d and supported their assertion that \u201cthey would suffer irreparable harm should the Rule go into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Physician Assistant Education Association filed lawsuits against Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the department, respectively. Howell ruled for both cases, acknowledging the plaintiffs\u2019 \u201cunderstandable angst\u201d over the new federal student loan caps.<\/p>\n

The Education Department and the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The Education Department\u2019s rule capped graduate student loans at $20,500 annually, with an aggregate cap of $100,000. The rule designated 11 graduate degrees as \u201cprofessional\u201d programs, offering students studying dentistry, law and medicine, among other fields, a higher annual loan cap of $50,000 and an aggregate cap of $200,000.<\/p>\n

The new regulation ended the Grad PLUS loan program \u2014 created by Congress in 2005 to allow students to borrow up to their school\u2019s full cost of tuition.<\/p>\n

The medical groups primarily took issue with the Trump administration\u2019s decision to omit students in advanced nursing and physician assistant programs from the \u201cprofessional\u201d category, making them ineligible for the higher loan cap.<\/p>\n

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The Education Department implemented the new rule as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which contained the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed into law last year. The legislation included sweeping changes to tax policy and cuts to social programs like Medicaid, Medicare, federal food assistance and federal student loan borrowing.<\/p>\n

The regulation received significant bipartisan pushback when it was announced, with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia) and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon) leading a group of 140 lawmakers in opposition to part of the Education Department\u2019s rule that did not include nurses in the \u201cprofessional\u201d group with higher loan caps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed definition threatens more debt for post-baccalaureate nursing students,\u201d the lawmakers said in a December news release<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The coalition of lawmakers also raised concerns about the broader impacts of the rule on the medical workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care,\u201d the lawmakers wrote, \u201cnow is not the time to cut off the student pipeline to these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Education Department\u2019s new borrowing caps for federal student loans were set to take effect on July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Judge Halts Rule Limiting Grad Student Loan Access - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=681\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Judge Halts Rule Limiting Grad Student Loan Access - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Education Department\u2019s new borrowing caps for federal student loans were set to take effect on July 1.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=681\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T18:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Federal Judge Halts Rule Limiting Grad Student Loan Access\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T18:45:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/03814a3118bf3bce89e6526e16fa7415-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Trump White House\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681\",\"name\":\"Federal Judge Halts Rule Limiting Grad Student Loan Access - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/03814a3118bf3bce89e6526e16fa7415-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T18:45:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=681#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/03814a3118bf3bce89e6526e16fa7415-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/03814a3118bf3bce89e6526e16fa7415-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, attends a hearing of the Health, Education, and Labor Committee on her nomination, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington. 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