Congress expands student loan access, hands Secretary a blank check
H.R. 6718 — Professional Student Degree Act · Filed by Michael Lawler (R-NY) · 27 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 15, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Higher Education Act to redefine what counts as a 'professional degree' for federal student loan purposes. It removes a reference to a specific federal regulation and replaces it with a statutory definition that explicitly lists 25 named professional degrees (pharmacy, law, medicine, nursing, MBA, etc.) plus a catch-all allowing the Secretary of Education to recognize additional degrees meeting the criteria. The effect is to clarify and potentially expand which graduate degrees qualify for federal student loan benefits.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to redefine which graduate degrees qualify for federal student loan benefits under the Higher Education Act. It replaces a regulatory definition with a statutory list and grants the Secretary discretion to expand that list, making it a definitional/eligibility amendment rather than a funding or appropriations measure.
What the text implies
- The Secretary's discretion to recognize 'any other degree' meeting the criteria is unconstrained by statute — no requirement for notice-and-comment rulemaking, congressional notification, or public transparency, potentially allowing loan eligibility to shift with administrative preference.
- Removing the CFR cross-reference eliminates a fixed regulatory baseline; future changes to federal regulations will no longer affect the definition, but the Secretary's interpretation of 'professional skill beyond bachelor's degree' remains undefined and subject to administrative drift.
- The list includes theology/ministry degrees (M.Div., D.Min.) alongside secular professional degrees, raising questions about whether federal student loan subsidies now flow to religious education — a potential Establishment Clause concern not addressed in the bill.
- MBA and accounting degrees are included alongside medical and legal degrees, blurring the line between 'professional licensure-required' degrees and business credentials, potentially opening the door to broader graduate-degree loan eligibility.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Students in newly recognized professional fields gain clearer access to federal student loans, a concrete benefit. However, the bill grants the Secretary of Education broad discretion to add degrees without statutory constraint, creating uncertainty about which programs will qualify and potentially allowing political or industry pressure to shape loan eligibility in ways not transparent to Congress or the public.
Who stands to gain
- graduate students in the 25 named professional fields
- educational institutions offering those degrees
- student loan servicers (increased loan volume)
Named in the bill
Higher Education Act of 1965, Section 455(a)(4)(C), Secretary of Education, Title 34 Code of Federal Regulations Section 668.2, Professional degrees: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optomet
Where it stands
27 cosponsors: 17 Republicans, 10 Democrats.
- Dec 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 15, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
40 lobbying clients named this bill on 52 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $11,175,649 in lobbying spend. A filing names 19 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 99% of bills with at least one filing.
Michael Lawler, the sponsor, reported $2,081,571 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Hospital Association — $4,470,000 on 1 filing
- Trinity Health — $720,000 on 3 filings
- American Speech-language-hearing Association — $680,000 on 2 filings
- American Physical Therapy Association — $614,051 on 2 filings
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners — $400,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,860 characters) on Aug 29, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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