"The Department of Education and its rule-making committee tasked with determining how to implement Congress's latest loan caps reached consensus Thursday, but that doesn't mean everyone involved was happy with the results-or that the policy proposal is guaranteed to be legally sound, some higher education experts say. The key focus of the regulations, which should be published to the Federal Register by early next year, was to determine which degree programs should be eligible for which level of loans."
"Under the higher ed section of Congress's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed in July 2025 and takes effect in July 2026, students in graduate programs can borrow up to $100,000 from the federal government while borrowers in professional programs can take out twice as much in loans. At issue was the definition of professional programs. In the end, the department and negotiators on the committee agreed to recognize only 11 primary programs and a handful of other doctorate degrees as eligible for the $200,000 loan level. (All but one program on that list-clinical psychology-had been included in the original, most restrictive proposal that department officials first brought to the table in October.)"
"Anytime an administration can reach consensus with negotiators on an issue or topic is always seen as a success for the administration. That's not an easy feat," said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education, a leading lobbying group that represents colleges and universities across the sector. "But building off of that, there are still areas of the language that were agreed to that are concerning for us."
The Department of Education and its rule-making committee reached consensus on implementing Congress's new loan caps, centering on which degree programs qualify for specific loan levels. Regulations are expected to be published to the Federal Register by early next year and take effect in July 2026. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows graduate students to borrow up to $100,000 and professional program students up to $200,000. The department limited the $200,000 level to 11 primary programs plus several doctorate degrees, with clinical psychology as the sole addition to the earlier restrictive list. Industry groups and some committee members expressed dissatisfaction and legal concerns about the language and eligibility definitions.
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