Healthcare systems across the United States are grappling with a deepening nursing shortage, a crisis that has drawn sharp criticism of recent federal policy changes affecting student loan access for aspiring nurses. In Connecticut and California, healthcare advocates, political leaders, and frontline workers are raising alarms that new restrictions on federal student loans for graduate nursing degrees—introduced by the Trump administration—could worsen the shortage and drive up healthcare costs for patients.
The controversy centers on provisions in the Trump administration’s tax-and-spending package, known officially as the Big Beautiful Bill but derided by critics as the Big Ugly Bill. Starting in July 2026, graduate nursing students will see their annual federal loan eligibility slashed from about $50,000 to $20,000, with a lifetime cap of $100,000. Compounding the problem, the Department of Education has reclassified nursing, removing it from the list of “professional degrees”—a move that further limits access to higher loan amounts typically reserved for fields like medicine, law, and dentistry.
In Connecticut, the impact is already being felt. Rob Baril, president of SEIU 1199NE, addressed a rally at the state Capitol in Hartford in April 2025, warning, “The shortage is in every sector. We’ve seen it get much worse since the pandemic.” Baril, whose union represents nurses across a wide array of settings, emphasized, “If you value care, you have to value nurses. The professionalism of nurses cannot be canceled by a federal memo. … If Washington does not protect the nursing profession, our states must. … Nurses are professionals. Caregivers are professionals.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal, speaking at the same Capitol complex in December, did not mince words: “Here is the definition of stupid. At a time when you have a shortage of nurses, put unrealistic, cruel, dumb caps on student loans for nurses. That’s what’s not to do.” Blumenthal highlighted the essential role nurses play, saying, “Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. They are the ones at the bedside who monitor patients’ performance. They are the ones who help patients in the middle of the night when they encounter some kind of crisis. They are the ones who talk to relatives, loved ones, who come to the hospital to visit. And they are the ones who advocate for patients.”
Connecticut’s healthcare system needs to hire about 3,000 nurses annually just to keep pace with retirements, departures, and burnout, yet only 2,682 students enrolled in nursing programs last year—a shortfall that has become routine, according to state officials. The Connecticut Hospital Association issued a stark warning: “Our nation is facing a critical healthcare workforce shortage. In this moment, we must all focus on strengthening recruitment, expanding access to education, and supporting attainable pathways into healthcare careers – not creating barriers. Lowering loan caps for high-demand clinical fields undermines efforts to grow the workforce and shows a troubling lack of vision for the future of care.”
Overtime costs are soaring as the state tries to fill the gap. In 2024, Connecticut spent $378 million on overtime across nearly 50 government departments, with the highest amounts in the state prison system ($113 million), Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services ($62 million), and state police ($60 million), according to state comptroller records. Notably, among the top 25 employees with the most overtime, 17 work for the state police and six for mental health facilities, with three earning over $230,000 each in overtime at the Whiting Forensic Institute alone. Much of this overtime in mental health facilities is due to nurses providing one-on-one care for psychiatric patients, especially at Whiting and Connecticut Valley Hospital, both located in Middletown.
Governor Ned Lamont acknowledged the challenge earlier this year, stating, “We’re trying like heck to get more troopers, more corrections officers, more nurses — those places where you do see an awful lot of overtime. We’re prioritizing that in terms of hiring. In other places, we’re not hiring as fast just to keep an eye on the budget.”
The personal toll of the loan restrictions is not lost on those working in the field. Keisha Gartman, who became a registered nurse in 2022 after a long journey that began as a certified nursing assistant, recounted how she accumulated $127,000 in student loans before qualifying for federal loan forgiveness. “Without loans, I would never have been able to make it through,” Gartman said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has defended the loan caps. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, speaking at a White House press briefing on November 20, 2025, reiterated the administration’s stance: “These loan limits will help drive down the cost of graduate programs and reduce the debt students have to take out. Graduate students received more than half of all new federal student loans originated in recent years, and graduate student loans now make up half of the outstanding $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.” The Department of Education addressed criticism on its website, stating, “The definition of a ‘professional degree’ is an internal definition used by the department to distinguish among programs that qualify for higher loan limits, not a value judgement about the importance of programs. It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.”
California faces a similar crisis, with a projected shortage of 61,000 nurses by 2033. On December 8, 2025, Congresswoman Laura Friedman joined healthcare professionals and labor leaders at Glendale Memorial Hospital to protest the federal policy. Friedman argued, “When you make it harder for people to become nurses, you make it harder and more expensive for families to get care.” She pledged to push for legislation to restore loan access for healthcare students, warning that the current restrictions are already discouraging many from pursuing advanced nursing degrees.
Friedman’s advocacy comes as she maintains a visible presence in Congress, with recent filings showing $163,100 in fundraising and a net worth of $1.2 million as of December 2025, according to Quiver Quantitative. Among her recent legislative efforts is the Restoring Essential Healthcare Act, aimed at addressing some of the very shortages now under debate.
The debate over nursing student loan caps has brought together a broad coalition of voices—union leaders, hospital administrators, lawmakers, and nurses themselves—all urging a reconsideration of policies they say could throttle the pipeline of new nurses at a time when the need has never been greater. As Rob Baril put it, “The shortage is in every sector.” The coming months will test whether Washington heeds these warnings, or if states will be left to shoulder the burden of a growing crisis in healthcare staffing.
