U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined nurses and labor leaders on Monday at the state Capitol in Hartford to assail a proposal by the Trump administration that could reduce the dollar amount nursing students and others can borrow for graduate degrees.
“There are already enough roadblocks to becoming a nurse — financially, emotionally and academically,” Keisha Gartman, a registered nurse who started her nursing career 16 years ago as a certified nursing assistant, said during the press conference. “Yet instead of removing barriers, the government is adding new ones.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also referred to as H.R. 1, eliminates a program that allowed borrowers to take out federal student loans for graduate programs up to the full cost of tuition. Beginning in July 2026, there will be caps on federal borrowing for graduate degrees, with higher caps for “professional” degrees and lower caps for all others.
The legislation charges the federal Department of Education with determining which types of degrees fall into each category. A “consensus definition” released earlier this year by a panel convened by the Trump administration designated 11 programs, including law, medicine and dentistry as “professional.”
Degrees in nursing — as well as physical therapy, public health and social work — were excluded, meaning they would be subject to the lower borrowing limit.
Effective July 2026, students pursuing professional degrees can borrow up to $50,000 annually, or $200,000 total. Those pursuing graduate degrees not designated as “professional” will have a stricter limit: $20,500 annually, or $100,000 total.
Gartman and several other nurses at the press conference said they would not have been able to get the education they have if the policy been in place when they were in school.
Ellen Keast, press secretary for higher education at the U.S. Department of Education, said the policy is intended to curb the ballooning cost of graduate degrees.
“While still in development, the Trump Administration is implementing long-needed loan limits on graduate loans to drive down the cost of programs, and under the new limits,” stated Keast in emailed comments. “We expect that institutions charging tuition rates well above market prices will consider lowering tuition thanks to these historic reforms.”
The department has yet to issue a proposed or final rule regarding which degrees qualify for the higher borrowing caps. Early next year, the Department will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, which will initiate a 30-day public comment period.
A graduate degree isn’t required for nursing. While roughly 17% of registered nurses hold a master’s degree or higher, the vast majority do not. And, according to a fact sheet about the new policy released by the Department of Education, “95% of nursing students borrow below the annual loan limit and therefore are not affected by the new caps.”
But the nurses at Monday’s press conference said certain roles in the industry — like becoming a nurse practitioner, as well as training, education or policy positions — require a master’s degree.
Linda Wagner, executive director at the University of Bridgeport’s School of Nursing, said graduate-educated nurses play critical roles as providers and teachers.
“We see every day master’s-prepared nurses who serve as faculty, as well as advanced practice registered nurses who are the providers families know best,” Wagner said in emailed comments. “When borrowing is restricted, it becomes harder for talented students to complete the training required for these essential nursing roles.”
Critics of the Trump proposal, including Blumenthal, say it restricts opportunities in the midst of a national nursing shortage.
“Here is the definition of stupid: At a time when you have a shortage of nurses, put unrealistic, cruel, dumb caps on student loans for nurses,” Blumenthal said. “That’s what not to do. But that is exactly what the great, big, beautiful bill of Donald Trump is doing.”
Connecticut needs roughly 3,000 new registered nurses a year to make up for retirements — without factoring in nurses who leave the profession for other reasons, like burn out, according to a Governor’s Workforce Council Strategic Plan published in 2020. At the time, the state’s nursing programs were only producing 1,900 graduates a year.
During comments on the House floor last week, Rep. Joe Courtney decried the policy, calling it “out of touch,” “offensive” and “an insult to the people who go through extensive training, testing, and certification before they are, again, allowed to practice their profession, the caring profession.”
In the fact sheet released by the Department of Education, the Trump administration rejected the critique that the proposal fails to recognize the important work that nurses do.
“The definition of a ‘professional degree’ is an internal definition used by the Department to distinguish among programs that qualify for higher loan limits, not a value judgement about the importance of programs. It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.”