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Were any Department of Labor rules altered under Trump affecting nursing as a profession?
Executive summary
The Department of Labor (DOL) under the Trump administration has moved to roll back or review multiple Biden-era labor protections — including rules that touch jobs in nursing and long‑term care — and proposed rewriting or repealing more than 60 regulations that affect home‑health and direct‑care workers [1] [2]. Available sources do not claim the DOL formally reclassified nursing as a profession; instead, reporting shows DOL actions that could change pay, overtime, staffing mandates and administration of some education programs that affect nurses indirectly [3] [4] [5].
1. Major deregulatory effort: 60+ rules on the chopping block
The DOL announced a broad deregulatory push to “rewrite or repeal more than 60 ‘obsolete’ workplace regulations,” a package whose subjects range from overtime and independent‑contract rules to minimum‑wage and overtime coverage for home‑health and direct‑care workers — categories that include many nursing‑adjacent roles such as certified nursing assistants and home health aides [1] [2] [6]. Advocacy groups and labor lawyers warn these rollbacks will affect frontline care staffing, wages and bargaining leverage; proponents argue the changes remove outdated red tape [7].
2. Direct‑care and home‑health pay rules under review
One concrete example is the DOL’s stated intention to reconsider an Obama‑era rule that expanded minimum‑wage and overtime protections to “direct care” workers — the very aides who do hands‑on work in nursing homes and in patients’ homes. Media reporting shows the agency “intends to reconsider” that 2013 regulation, which could reduce pay or overtime eligibility for those roles if reversed [3]. Supporters of reversal argue cost and flexibility concerns; critics say it would depress wages for lower‑paid caregivers and increase staffing pressures in nursing settings [3].
3. Staffing mandates and nursing‑home regulations targeted
Reporting indicates the administration is considering undoing federal nursing‑home staffing rules; some industry groups welcomed the move, saying mandates ignored funding and operational realities, while advocates warned that reversing staffing requirements risks patient care quality [4]. Skilled Nursing News noted the administration’s broader plan to eliminate certain federal rules quickly and suggested the nursing‑home staffing rule may be on the chopping block, though confirmation of specific rules being cut was not settled in that reporting [4].
4. Administrative shifts that affect nursing education and workforce policy
Beyond DOL rulemaking, the administration moved certain education programs — including adult education, family literacy and career and technical education — from the Education Department to the Labor Department, a structural change that could alter how workforce and training programs connected to nursing and allied health are run [5]. Separately, several outlets report the Department of Education revised the list of “professional degree” programs for loan/aid purposes, with coverage focusing on nursing’s exclusion; those moves relate to Education Department policy and student‑aid frameworks rather than a DOL reclassification [8] [9] [10]. Available sources do not show the DOL itself reclassified nursing as a profession.
5. Labor‑relations landscape: NLRB, overtime and contractor tests
Legal and law‑firm analyses predicted the second Trump administration would reverse Biden‑era overtime salary thresholds, reconsider independent‑contractor tests, and shift NLRB and EEOC priorities — all changes that affect nurses employed in hospitals, long‑term care and home‑health agencies by changing overtime eligibility, bargaining power and employer obligations [11] [12]. The American Prospect links these broader federal shifts to downstream effects on nurses’ organizing and contract negotiations [13].
6. Conflicting framings and what’s not in the reporting
Some outlets emphasize immediate harms to nursing access and student loan eligibility when they report education‑policy changes [10]; other coverage focuses on deregulatory intent and industry support for rolling back mandates [4]. Available sources do not provide a definitive list showing the DOL has enacted a single, sweeping rule that “reclassifies” nursing as non‑professional; rather, they document multiple reviews, proposed rollbacks and interagency shifts that indirectly affect nursing pay, staffing and training [1] [3] [5].
7. What to watch next
Monitor final rule texts and rule‑by‑rule notices in the Federal Register for any concrete reversals of the direct‑care overtime rule, nursing‑home staffing mandates, or changes to overtime salary thresholds — and watch the Education Department actions and student‑aid definitions separately, since those are tied to education policy rather than DOL rulemaking [3] [4] [5]. Labor groups and nursing associations will likely litigate or lobby aggressively around any changes that directly affect staffing, wages and training pipelines [7] [13].
Limitations: This summary relies only on the supplied reporting; it does not assert actions beyond those articles’ coverage and notes when a source is focused on Education Department changes rather than DOL rulemaking [8] [5].