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Were temporary licensure waivers or interstate compacts expanded for nurses during the Trump years?
Executive summary
Temporary emergency licensure waivers for out‑of‑state nurses were widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic (a de‑facto national waiver under state emergencies), and states continued to expand formal interstate compacts over the 2010s and into the early 2020s — for example the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) and the APRN Compact adopted by NCSBN in 2020 [1] [2]. Recent reporting shows the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act reclassified many graduate health programs — including nursing — out of a federal “professional degree” category that affects federal Grad PLUS loan caps, but that is a separate federal student‑loan redefinition, not a direct expansion of state licensure compacts or temporary waivers [3] [4].
1. Pandemic waivers created a temporary, near‑national practice environment
States’ emergency declarations in 2020 allowed governors and licensing boards to issue temporary authorizations that let out‑of‑state nurses practice during COVID; scholars and policy analysts describe that emergency licensing waiver system as “initiating a functionally national compact” during the pandemic, with large volumes of emergency authorizations issued in some states (e.g., Oregon reported over 11,000) and many of those authorizations lasting into 2022–2023 [1] [5].
2. Interstate compacts were expanding before and after the Trump presidency
Interstate compacts for nursing (the NLC) originated in 2000 and were updated in 2015; their membership grew steadily through the 2010s and into the 2020s. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) adopted an APRN Compact in August 2020 to allow advanced practice nurses one multistate license, and multiple states adopted compact legislation in succeeding years [2] [6].
3. Evidence of growth — states kept joining compacts, not a single federal push
Research and trade publications documenting compact growth show multistate licensure take‑up increasing over time (for example, from 1.6% in 2008 to about 24% of RNs holding interstate licenses by 2020) and journals note compacts and telehealth have driven interest in additional compacts across professions [1] [7]. These are state‑by‑state legislative actions, not federal rule changes [8] [9].
4. Trump administration actions cited by news outlets affected student‑loan classifications, not state licensure law
Multiple news outlets report that the Department of Education’s implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act excluded nursing and several other programs from the federal “professional degree” definition used for higher Grad PLUS loan limits, which reduces how much students in those programs can borrow; outlets including Newsweek, WPR, and others describe this student‑loan reclassification and ensuing pushback from nursing groups [10] [3] [11]. Snopes and other fact‑checks note media coverage of that reclassification and link it to the bill’s elimination of Grad PLUS and borrowing caps [4].
5. Distinguish two separate policy tracks: licensure mobility vs. federal loan rules
The licensing developments (temporary emergency waivers and the growth of interstate compacts) occurred primarily through state action and emergency public‑health authority — documented by Brookings and academic summaries of pandemic-era waivers and compact expansion [1] [5]. By contrast, the Trump administration’s student‑loan policy change altered higher‑education classifications and borrowing limits at the federal level; that policy does not itself expand or create state licensure compacts or the emergency licensing mechanisms [4] [3].
6. Competing perspectives and political context
Nursing organizations and academic leaders condemned the Dept. of Education’s reclassification as harmful to the nursing workforce and student access to graduate education [12] [13]. Media outlets framed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a sweeping reshaping of federal student‑loan rules that would affect graduate health professions [14] [11]. Other reporting that focuses on workforce mobility emphasizes that compacts and emergency waivers eased cross‑state staffing shortages during COVID and that compact membership has continued to grow via state legislatures [1] [15].
7. What’s not in the supplied reporting
Available sources do not mention a federal executive action during the Trump years that directly expanded interstate nurse licensure compacts or permanently established a federal multistate nursing license; compacts are enacted via state legislation [8] [9]. Available sources do not claim that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act created or altered state licensure law — the bill’s effects reported in the sources concern student‑loan classification and borrowing limits [4] [3].
8. Bottom line for the question asked
Yes — temporary licensure waivers were widely used during the COVID emergency (a near‑national, temporary relaxation of state licensing rules), and interstate compacts for nursing were expanding across states before, during, and after that period [1] [2]. However, the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act reclassification of nursing as not a federal “professional degree” is a separate federal student‑loan policy change noted in media reporting — it did not itself constitute an expansion of state licensure compacts or emergency waivers [4] [3].