A judge partially halts the Trump administration’s definition of “professional” qualifications.
Overview:
A judge temporarily blocked the Education Department’s narrow definition of “professional degree” under the new student loan limits, joining states and health groups that oppose the law that excludes fields like nursing from higher loan limits, even though the basic loans still go into effect on July 1 while the case is pending.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing a rule that would have severely limited which graduate students qualify for student loan limits, giving a boost to professional programs that say the policy could stifle access to essential jobs.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the ruling Wednesday night, finding that the Department of Education had misread Congress’s definition of “professional” qualification when drafting its legislation to implement the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Judge Howell described the department’s approach as “misguided” and wrote that Congress has always had no taste for what is considered a professional qualification, the level from which the department deviated.
The decision doesn’t block the loan limits themselves, which will go into effect on July 1. Instead, it sets up the department’s narrow definition of “professional degree” classification that determines which students qualify for the higher borrowing limit.
The Department of Education’s redefinition of “professional” degrees excludes degrees in nursing, public health, education, marriage and family therapy, and other programs that prepare students to enter critical programs that require specialized training.
Two Crimes, One War
Howell’s decision came on the heels of two separate lawsuits filed last month that made the most of the controversy. One was brought by attorneys general from 25 states and the District of Columbia; the other was filed by a coalition of professional organizations, including the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, one of the biggest critics of the department’s definition. More legal challenges are expected, including one from the American Academy of Physician Associates.
Lynn Eisenberg, an attorney representing professional organizations, said in a news release that the department’s decision to limit which programs are eligible for large loans “puts important career opportunities in nursing, health, medicine and education out of reach for thousands of prospective students and undermines the professional programs themselves.”
Caps in Matter
The dispute dates back to last summer, when Republican members of Congress ended the Grad PLUS program, which had allowed graduate students to borrow their full cost of attendance, and replaced it with new borrowing limits. Under the law, graduate students can borrow up to $20,500 per year and $100,000 in total, while professional students can borrow up to $50,000 per year and $200,000 in total.
A combat center where programs are qualified as “experts.” The Department of Education eventually limited that designation to only 11 degree programs – pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, theology and clinical psychology – classifying all other programs as mere “degrees”.
Why the Judge Ruled Against the Department
According to the legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act sets out three requirements for a degree to be considered a professional: it must indicate the completion of educational requirements to begin practicing on the job, demonstrate a level of skill above a bachelor’s degree, and generally require a professional license. The law also refers to a list of 10 model programs taken from the Higher Education Act, clearly noting that professional degrees “include but are not limited” to those models.
The plaintiffs argued that the department ignored that open-ended language and instead piled on additional requirements — requiring, among other things, that the program take at least six years to complete including a bachelor’s degree, typically provide a doctoral-level certificate, and not lead to work supervised by another professional with additional training. The department also limited eligible programs to the four-digit CIP code as examples listed in the law — a smaller classification than the two-digit code that would apply to fields such as nursing. Plaintiffs said this approach effectively turned an indefinite list into an exhaustive list, which exceeded the agency’s mandate, and called for the inclusion of clinical psychology while excluding other health fields that are in high demand in an unreasonable and unreasonable manner.
Howell admitted that the department jumped. He found that while many of the 11 designated programs appear in the law’s definition, Congress has clearly left the list out, and the department has no authority to narrow it. He also flagged a contradiction in the thinking of this organization: it refused to measure how this law could affect health care and education workers, diversity of the workforce, and rural communities, pointing out the lack of guidance from Congress, as it sought the authority to limit the interpretation of Congress without a similar order.
What Happens Next
The case is far from being solved. Howell’s order was to stay “waiting for the final decision of th[e] in the courts,” and the Ministry of Education has not said how it plans to respond Within Higher EdThe department said only this order allows you to use the official definition and symbols of the loan, and that it is reviewing the order before taking further action.
Legal observers expect more unrest to come. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators warned that there is still a lot of uncertainty after the decision, noted that the Department has not passed or commented on its plans, and advised the institutions to consult with the law enforcement agencies for now. Lawyer Josie Eskow Skinner of Sligo Law Group said the department did not have time to draft new legislation before the deadline, meaning broad statutory language would govern eligibility for now – although she said she would not be surprised to see the government apply and ask for a stay.
Physician assistant programs were among the fields left out of the department’s list of professional degrees, and the PA Education Association was one of the groups supporting the lawsuits Howell ruled on.
“Today’s decision is an important step forward for PA students, educational programs, patients, and healthcare professionals. By providing preliminary relief, the Court recognized that the harm caused by this law is too great to ignore and that PA students should not be forced to deal with its consequences while the case is pending,” the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) said in a statement. “Allowing this law to go into effect on July 1 and legal challenges to its continuation will cause irreparable harm to PA students, programs, the profession and the community.”
In the meantime, the higher education community is left confused: the loan comes regardless of which programs will be under the estimated amount of $ 100,000 – and which will eventually reach the upper professional-degree limit of $ 200,000 – remains unfixed as the case continues.
