HR 8691 Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.
Nursing is a Professional Degree Act
To amend the definition of a professional student in the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Summary
This bill amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to redefine professional degrees and professional students. It removes a reference to federal regulations and instead provides a new definition of professional degree as one that signifies completion of academic requirements for beginning practice in a profession requiring professional licensure, with skill beyond a bachelor's degree. The bill lists specific professional degrees recognized under this definition, including pharmacy, dentistry, law, medicine, and nursing degrees such as master's and doctoral programs in nursing. The bill also allows the Secretary of Education to recognize additional degrees that meet these criteria.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
19 cosponsors
- Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large] (D-DC)
- Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2] (R-NE)
- Rep. Bergman, Jack [R-MI-1] (R-MI)
- Rep. Bresnahan, Robert P. [R-PA-8] (R-PA)
- Rep. Carson, André [D-IN-7] (D-IN)
- Rep. Costa, Jim [D-CA-21] (D-CA)
- Rep. Edwards, Chuck [R-NC-11] (R-NC)
- Rep. Elfreth, Sarah [D-MD-3] (D-MD)
- Rep. Fine, Randy [R-FL-6] (R-FL)
- Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1] (R-PA)
- Rep. Joyce, David P. [R-OH-14] (R-OH)
- Rep. Kiley, Kevin [I-CA-3] (I-CA)
- Rep. Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA-18] (D-CA)
- Rep. Mackenzie, Ryan [R-PA-7] (R-PA)
- Rep. Newhouse, Dan [R-WA-4] (R-WA)
- Rep. Rutherford, John H. [R-FL-5] (R-FL)
- Rep. Van Drew, Jefferson [R-NJ-2] (R-NJ)
- Rep. Van Orden, Derrick [R-WI-3] (R-WI)
- Rep. Wittman, Robert J. [R-VA-1] (R-VA)
Actions (2)
- May 7, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. · house
- May 7, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 7, 2026
Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia (for herself, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Mr. Bergman, Mr. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the definition of a professional student in the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Nursing is a Professional Degree Act”.
SEC. 2. PROFESSIONAL STUDENT AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREE DEFINED.
Section 455(a)(4)(C) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(a)(4)(C)) is amended—
(1) in clause (ii), by striking “, as defined under section 668.2 of title 34, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the date of enactment of this paragraph),”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(iii) Professional degree.—In this paragraph, the term ‘professional degree’—
“(I) means a degree that signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession (for which professional licensure is also commonly required) and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree; and
“(II) includes each of the following degrees: “(aa) Pharmacy (Pharm.D.). “(bb) Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.).
“(cc) Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.).
“(dd) Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.). “(ee) Law (L.L.B. or J.D.). “(ff) Medicine (M.D.). “(gg) Optometry (O.D.). “(hh) Osteopathic Medicine/Osteopathy (D.O.).
“(ii) Podiatric Medicine/ Podiatry (D.P.M., D.P., or Pod.D.). “(jj) Theology/Theological Studies (M.Div. or M.H.L.). “(kk) Clinical Psychology (Psy.D. or Ph.D.).
“(ll) Nursing (MSN, DNP, DNAP, or Ph.D).
“(mm) Any other degree that meets the requirements of subclause (I), as determined by the Secretary.”. <all>
Comments