Federal student aid now tied to graduate earnings—programs fail if debt burden is too high.
H.R. 9748 — Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act · Filed by Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates federal standards for college and vocational programs that receive federal student aid. It requires programs preparing students for licensed occupations to ensure graduates can actually get licensed in the states where they're marketed, and it establishes a 'debt-to-earnings' test: programs fail if graduates' annual loan payments exceed 20% of discretionary income or 8% of total earnings for 2 of any 3 years. Failed programs lose federal funding and cannot restart for 3 years. The bill also requires distance-education programs to comply with each state's authorization rules.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a debt-to-earnings accountability standard applied to federal student-aid-eligible programs. It restricts institutional access to federal funds based on graduate earnings outcomes, not a tax break or subsidy. The title accurately describes the intent.
What the text implies
- Programs serving low-income fields (social work, counseling, public service) may face disproportionate failure risk if earnings thresholds do not account for mission-driven, lower-paying careers, potentially reducing access to training in underserved sectors.
- Distance-education providers face new state-by-state compliance burdens; institutions operating in multiple states must now navigate each state's authorization process, raising compliance costs that may be passed to students or reduce program availability in smaller markets.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who it affects
Students gain concrete protections: programs must actually prepare them for licensure in promised states, and programs with poor earnings outcomes lose federal funding, reducing the risk of debt-burdened graduates. Institutions lose access to federal aid for failing programs, but this protects taxpayers and future students from subsidizing low-value credentials.