Update on the Final Rule from the Department of Education

Background:

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which Congress passed on July 4, 2025, mandated the elimination of Graduate PLUS loans and called for strict new annual and lifetime borrowing limits. The Department of Education created the RISE (Reimagining and Improving Student Education) committee to simplify the student loan system and establish limits on college borrowing prior to the July 1, 2026, deadline set by the OBBBA. 

The RISE committee’s proposed rule was released on January 29, 2026. The proposed rule established new annual and lifetime caps based on degree classification (professional vs graduate). The professional degree caps are 200K lifetime/50K annual, and the graduate degree caps are 100K lifetime/20.5K annual. Though the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree exceeds the department’s own criteria of a professional degree, the RISE committee classified the DPT as a graduate degree rather than a professional degree. Public comments on the proposed rule were accepted for 30 days (a very short window). Despite receiving over 80,000 comments from organizations and individuals, with the majority of comments opposing the rule, the RISE committee’s final rule was published on May 1, 2026, with the same degree caps and degree classifications as the proposed rule.

Previously, Graduate PLUS loans allowed students to borrow up to the cost of attendance. Students who are already actively enrolled and have had a federal loan disbursed for their specific program prior to July 1, 2026, can continue borrowing under the old Grad PLUS/higher limit rules for up to three academic years (or until graduation, whichever is shorter), provided they maintain continuous enrollment at the same institution. After July 1, 2026, incoming DPT students will be held to the above loan caps. By restricting federal loan availability, the final rule may push students toward higher-cost private debt or deter qualified applicants entirely. These limits would likely disproportionately affect students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds and could further destabilize the future of the physical therapy workforce.

For a brief overview on the timeline of activities related to this issue, please watch this 10 minute Youtube video. The APTA position paper can be found here. The APTA also published this letter on May 1, 2026 opposing the final rule.

Current Happenings: 

There are three APTA-supported bills that address federal student loan limits for graduate and professional students. While they share a common theme of modifying borrowing caps, they differ in scope and approach.

• H.R. 6677/S. 4039 – the Professional Degree Access Restoration Act: Sponsored by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) respectively, these functionally identical bills would restore federal student loan limits for graduate students to the levels under the Higher Education Act of 1965. Specifically, they would set borrowing caps at $50,000 annually and $200,000 in total, reversing changes made under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Key point: Focuses broadly on restoring prior loan limits for graduate students.

• H.R. 6574 – the Loan Equity for Advanced Professional Act: Sponsored by Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY), this legislation similarly proposes $50,000 annual and $200,000 aggregate loan limits. Like H.R. 6677/S. 4039, this bill aims to preserve preexisting borrowing levels, but explicitly applies to both graduate and professional students, and references earlier proposed changes from the RISE Committee.

Key similarity: Matches the same loan caps as H.R. 6677/S. 4039.

Key difference: More explicitly includes professional students and is framed as a response to a different policy proposal.

• H.R. 6718 – the Professional Student Degree Act: Sponsored by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), this bill takes a different approach. Rather than changing loan limits overall, it modifies which degree programs qualify for the existing $50,000 annual and $200,000 aggregate caps. It would expand eligibility to include additional professional degrees, including physical therapy.

Key difference: Does not change the loan amounts but instead focuses on which professional degrees qualify for loan limits, not the limits themselves.

Department of Education Litigation: On May 19, 2026, a coalition of state attorneys general and governors filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education that advocates for the dismissal of the department’s final rule on federal student loans based on procedural and substantive grounds. A second lawsuit led by the organization Democracy Forward was filed on May 21, 2026, that similarly asks the court to block the Dept of ED final rule on the grounds it violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APTA is monitoring this lawsuit, as well as other legal challenges from third-party organizations and professional associations. APTA has not joined these legal challenges at this time but continues to assess the situation and engage with those involved in legal efforts.

What you can do to help 

If you are looking to take action, there are many options.

• Ask your Senators or Representative to protect PT student loan access by supporting one of the bills listed above.
  • One easy way to do so is to send a pre-written message through this link. All you need to do is enter your name, email address, and home address (which is needed to send the message to the correct Senators/Representative). If you have time, you can add your own story to personalize the message.
  • You could also call the offices of your Senators/Representative and ask them to support one of the bills listed above.
  • Finally, you could set up an office visit to discuss the issue with your Senators/Representative. Visits can occur in Washington DC or in-district (depending on their schedule).
• Donate to the PT-PAC.
  • PT-PAC staff work day in and day out to advocate on behalf of the profession, building relationships with members of Congress and their staff. Only APTA members are permitted to donate to the PT-PAC. The PT-PAC has been recognized as one of the top 10 health professional association PACs.
• Inform others on how this rule may impact you, them, PT education, students, patients, the profession, etc.
  • Many people do not have time to stay up to date with or may feel overwhelmed by politics and happenings on the hill. Let your colleagues and students know what is happening. If they want to take action, help them do so.

Other actions:

• APTA members can log into the Legislative Action Center to send prewritten messages to their legislators. You can also edit the messages if you want to add a personal story.
• Nonmembers and members of the public can use the Patient Action Center to send prewritten messages to their legislators.
• Members and nonmembers can send prewritten messages to their legislators with a few screen taps, view talking points on legislative issues, and find their legislators using the Advocacy App for iPhone or Android.
• While the APTA works hard on our behalf, they are unable to address every issue and every bill. If there is a legislative issue that you feel strongly about, you can contact your Senators or Representative directly with your concerns.
  • Find out who your Congressional Representative is here using your address: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
  • You can find out the contact information for your Senators here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
  • Similarly, you can go to your state legislature website to find out who represents you at the state level.

Staying in the loop:

• If you would like to stay up to date on advocacy and/or legislative alerts, join the APTA Advocacy Network (formerly called the PTeam). You could also join your state chapter’s advocacy network. The APTA Advocacy Network sends out important information in real time. They do not bombard your email inbox with messages; they only send out information when necessary. It is a great way to stay up to date with legislative issues impacting our profession.
• You can see current advocacy issues on the APTA Advocacy Issues page. There is also a specific page for Education and Workforce Advocacy.
• Sign up for the PT-PAC quarterly newsletter to receive information on the importance of PT-PAC on Capitol Hill, what's happening in election races across the country, and PT-PAC events at conferences.