Congress·In Committee·H.R. 6574

Loan Equity for Advanced Professionals Act

Congress Proposes Raising Graduate Student Loan Limits to $50,000 Per Year

Dec 10, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

Part of: Congress Moves to Expand 'Professional Degree' Definition for Service Fields

StalledNext up: A house committeeNo action in 7 months

This bill is currently in the House Committee on Education and Workforce. It has not moved since December 2025, which means it has been stalled for about six months. The committee must review the bill before it can move forward, but no action has taken place.

Legislative Progress

House

No action since December 2025

Senate

President

Law

Key Points

This bill would change how much money graduate and professional students can borrow from the federal government. Starting July 1, 2026, students in advanced degree programs could take out up to $50,000 each year in Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans.
The plan also sets a new total limit for these loans. Students would be allowed to borrow a maximum of $200,000 for their graduate studies. This total does not include any money the student already borrowed for their undergraduate degree.
Right now, borrowing limits can vary depending on the specific type of degree a student is pursuing. This bill aims to create a single, equal standard for all graduate and professional students to make the system simpler and more consistent.
This change is intended to help students pay for expensive advanced degrees like law, medicine, or business. By raising federal limits, students might not need to use private bank loans, which often have higher interest rates and fewer protections for the borrower.

EducationEconomy Finance

Impact Analysis

Personal Impact

Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works

Life & Work

Graduate and professional students would gain access to higher federal borrowing limits, which could make expensive programs more financially accessible without resorting to private loans. However, only current and future graduate/professional students are affected — not undergraduates. The increased borrowing capacity is a double-edged sword: it provides more options with federal protections (like income-driven repayment), but it also enables students to take on more debt, which could be burdensome after graduation if earnings don't match expectations.

ImpactCertaintyScopeDurationSentiment

Programs

Broader Impacts

DomainScoreShort-termLong-termReversibilityConfidence

Score

Scores: -5 (harmful) to +5 (beneficial)Short-term: 0-2 yearsLong-term: 10-30 years

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Dec 10, 2025House

Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

Dec 10, 2025

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

Related News

6 articles

PBS News·Feb 4

Major changes to student loan borrowing and repayment are coming. Here's what to know

Covers the rollout of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (OBBBA), which establishes the two-tiered loan system the LEAP Act seeks to reform. It details the new $20,500 limit for general graduate students versus the $50,000 limit for designated professional programs starting July 2026.

Center Left

Buffalo Toronto Public Media·Dec 17, 2025

Kennedy proposes bill to increase student-loan access

Rep. Tim Kennedy introduced the LEAP Act to ensure that graduate students in fields like nursing and education have equal access to the $50,000 annual and $200,000 aggregate loan limits currently reserved for a narrow set of 'professional' degrees under recent legislation.

Center Left

Big Island Now·Jan 2

Proposed federal LEAP Act would raise loan cap for graduate students

Reports on the introduction of the LEAP Act by Reps. Tokuda, Kennedy, and Figures. The bill aims to correct a disparity that reduced borrowing power for health students such as nurses and physical therapists, restoring their access to the same federal loan limits as doctors and lawyers.

Center

No votes or related bills recorded for this bill yet.