Which federal law did President Trump sign that reclassified certain degrees from 'professional' status?
Executive summary
Multiple news outlets report that changes tied to President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBBA) and subsequent Education Department rulemaking narrow which graduate programs count as “professional degrees,” excluding nursing, education and other fields from a list that the department says now includes medicine, law, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology and clinical psychology [1] [2]. Reporting and fact‑checks stress the practical result: students in excluded programs would face lower federal graduate loan caps under the OBBBA framework and the department’s regulatory interpretation [3] [4].
1. What law is at the center of this change — and what did it do?
The central statute is President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (often shortened in reporting to OBBBA or “Big Beautiful Bill”), signed earlier in 2025; that law eliminated the Grad PLUS program and imposed new annual and lifetime borrowing caps tied to whether a program is classified as a “professional degree” [5] [6]. Under the law’s loan structure, programs the Education Department treats as “professional” qualify for higher caps (examples cited by outlets put professional program caps at $50,000 annually/$200,000 lifetime versus lower caps for other graduate programs) [5] [6].
2. What exactly did the Education Department change or propose?
News outlets describe an Education Department rulemaking that narrows the federal definition of “professional degree” to a short list of fields — explicitly medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology and clinical psychology — and would thus leave out nursing, social work, many counseling and allied‑health programs, education and other graduate credentials [7] [1] [2]. Reporting frames this as an implementation of the borrowing caps created by OBBBA: by redefining which programs qualify as “professional,” the department determines which students are eligible for the higher borrowing ceiling the law reserves for professional students [4] [2].
3. Is this a unilateral reclassification by the department or a change already enacted by Congress?
The law creating the new loan framework is congressional and presidential (OBBBA), but multiple sources emphasize that the Education Department’s narrower listing is an agency regulatory interpretation used to implement that statute; outlets note the department is leaning on language from an older federal regulation (1965 examples) while offering a narrower, explicit list in current rules [3] [4]. Snopes cautions that some viral posts overstated the immediacy or finality of a reclassification — noting the department’s narrower interpretation was part of a proposal or rulemaking process as reporting ran, not simply a one‑sentence “this program is no longer professional” pronouncement [3].
4. What are the practical consequences reported?
If the department’s list stands and OBBBA’s loan caps are implemented as described, students in excluded programs would face materially lower federal borrowing limits and lose access to Grad PLUS replacement benefits, increasing out‑of‑pocket costs and potentially reducing ability to enter or complete certain graduate programs — a point emphasized by nursing groups and higher‑education commentators [6] [8] [4]. Newsweek, NBC Washington and independent outlets all highlight that eligibility for the higher $200,000 lifetime (or higher annual) caps would be limited to degrees the department labels “professional,” leaving others subject to stricter caps [2] [4] [5].
5. Who is pushing back — and what arguments do they make?
Professional and academic groups, particularly nursing organizations, have voiced alarm that excluding nursing and similar fields “disregards decades of progress” toward parity among health professions and will worsen shortages; commentators and legal scholars quoted in Newsweek and The Independent argue the department’s interpretation departs from commonly held legal and professional understandings of “learned professions” [2] [5]. At the same time, the Administration and Education Department justify the change as part of OBBBA’s tuition‑pressure rationale: capping loan availability could force high‑tuition programs to lower costs [4].
6. How definitive is current reporting — and what’s not in the sources?
Reporting is consistent that OBBBA created new loan caps and that the Education Department’s rulemaking narrows the list of programs treated as “professional” [5] [1] [4]. However, Snopes notes nuance: some social posts overstated that the agency had already “reclassified” everything as final; as of their write‑up the proposal and department interpretation were part of an active rulemaking process [3]. Available sources do not mention the full text of the final regulation, nor do they provide complete legal analysis of administrative‑procedure steps [3] [4].
Bottom line: The statutory vehicle is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and news organizations report the Education Department is implementing that statute by narrowly defining which graduate programs count as “professional,” with nursing and several other fields left off the department’s list — a move that would substantially affect borrowing limits for students in those programs [5] [1] [4].