Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander joined over 140 bipartisan lawmakers to sound the alarm over a proposed framework at the U.S. Department of Education to declassify nursing degrees as “professional,” undermining the entire future of the nursing workforce. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congressman Chris Pappas also signed this letter. 

“Nurses and nurse practitioners are the backbone of healthcare in America.  President Trump’s so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ reclassified nursing degrees, imposing new limits on student loans for nurses that will choke off the pipeline of Nurse Practitioners and CRNAs New Hampshire urgently needs. I will not stop fighting to reverse this policy,” said Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander.

Their letter follows a recently released proposed framework from the Education Department’s Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Committee that omits post-baccalaureate nursing degrees from the regulatory definition of “professional degree” for purposes of borrowing federal student loans. If this framework is adopted during the upcoming rulemaking, the proposed definition would threaten post-baccalaureate nursing students with needing to take out private loans, or being unable to pursue further education altogether. Under the GOP’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, graduate program loans were capped at $20,500 annually with a $100,000 lifetime limit and “professional” degree programs were capped at $50,000 annually with a $200,000 lifetime limit.

Full text of their bipartisan letter is here.

Congresswoman Goodlander has dedicated her life to serving New Hampshire and our country and is fighting to ensure every Granite Stater, including our nurses, gets a fair deal. Before taking the oath of office to represent New Hampshire in the People’s House, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, where she took on the corporate monopolies and giant corporations hurting New Hampshire families and workers.

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