Today is
Wednesday June 03, 2026
(WASHINGTON) -- Two physician associate groups have sued the Trump administration over a federal rule limiting student loan borrowing for some graduate degree programs that impact healthcare professionals, including physician associates and assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners and other clinical providers.
The American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) and the Physician Associates Education Association (PAEA) filed a lawsuit aimed at reversing a Department of Education regulation that the plaintiffs claim violates the Administrative Procedure Act. They are separately requesting an emergency injunction that seeks to block the rule from taking effect for PA students on July 1.
The complaint also claims that the rule exceeds the Education Department's statutory jurisdiction and is therefore unlawful. The Government Accountability Office website said the Administrative Procedure Act prescribes the minimum procedural steps an agency must follow in its administrative proceedings.
The lawsuit alleges the Education Department overstepped its legal authority by disqualifying a PA degree from being categorized as a professional degree.
The new rule entitled the Reimagining and Improving Student Education-Federal Student Loan Program (RISE) -- which is based on an existing regulation -- finalized the definition of "professional" and "graduate" programs, restricting student loan borrowing limits to $200,000 and $100,000 total for professional and graduate degrees respectively. The $100,000 total cost for PA students is capped at $20,500 annually.
AAPA's CEO Lisa Gables said the rule will have "devastating consequences" for the PA workforce.
"PA programs meet every element of the professional degree definition that Congress established in law," Gables wrote in a statement. "They award entry-level master’s degrees, require rigorous clinical training, and lead to professional licensure in all 50 states."
She added, "We are in court to ensure the law is implemented as Congress intended."
According to the Education Department's final regulation, pharmacy and dentistry are among the list of eleven professional degree programs –- including medicine, law and clinical psychology degrees –- eligible for the $200,000 cap, but teaching, nursing, and physician associates are now capped at the lower limit.
The median PA program tuition is nearly $97,000 for residents before fees and additional costs, according to AAPA.
The recent move is drawing widespread concern from public service advocates as the healthcare groups stress that the federal loan limits will push many students to be dependent on private student loans, which have stricter approval requirements, unfavorable interest rates, and limited repayment plan options.
The rule would harm the associations' ability to provide member services and advocacy and the groups' members would also suffer "negative consequences" if PA students do not have access to the higher loan amounts that allow them to attend PA programs, according to the complaint.
Rory O’Sullivan, at D.C.-based policy think-tank Arnold Ventures, argued that loan limits should be based on degree program outcomes, not what field of study the degree is in.
Wednesday's filing comes as 24 states and Washington, D.C., sued the administration on similar grounds in May, arguing that the rule would widen the nursing shortage because the borrowing limit would disincentivize students from entering the field.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon defended her department’s rule at an annual budget hearing on Capitol Hill last month.
"These particular programs have not been reclassified as nonprofessional," McMahon said during the House Education committee hearing. "They were never classified as professional degrees – that just wasn't a part of the equation."
"There's been no other measure that has been taken to try to bring down the cost of education," McMahon contended.
The Department of Education emphasized that loan caps are "common sense" and place downward pressure on the cost of tuition across the country.
Ellen Keast, the press secretary for higher education at the Education Department, told ABC News in a statement, "For two decades, colleges and universities have been able to charge virtually unlimited tuition, even as many student loan borrowers see little to no return on their investment."
"During this time, tuition has risen faster than any other household expense, and 71 percent of graduates with debt report delaying major life milestones, while institutions have taken in billions at the expense of young Americans' financial stability," Keast said.
She added: "The Trump Administration is working to correct this longstanding imbalance by ending a system that pushed students into debt they often could not repay and by promoting access to high quality education that serves students, not institutional bottom lines."
'My dream of being a PA is probably shot'
Wednesday's complaint said the rule will burden students, like Ben Pinckney from New York, and deter them from applying to PA programs. The plaintiffs said it effectively creates scenarios where those aspiring PAs are unable to afford the cost of attendance because the vast majority of PA students need the higher loan limits authorized for the "professional student" to be able to attend PA school.
Pinckney told ABC News in an exclusive interview he has dreamed of becoming a PA for years but said he’s still struggling to find an affordable graduate school within the student loan caps. The 46-year-old recent college graduate said an emergency room PA saved his life when he was the victim of a shooting years ago and that inspired him to pursue medicine as a profession.
"Not only did he save my life in the physical, but [also with] the conversations we used to have," Pinckney told ABC News, adding "My mentality and my way of thinking changed because of the PA."
Pinckney, who later served in the U.S. Army as a combat medic, said he voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 but believes the Trump administration's rule is "hurting both sides" by making the PA degree harder to obtain.
"It's less about politics and more about helping providers or potential providers get the schooling they need, so that we can go into the communities that we want to go into and help those people," Pinckney said.
PAs treat patients under the supervision of a physician in healthcare settings, including hospitals, doctors' offices, and outpatient clinics, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Advocates stress that the department's decision could strain critical patient care access and the majority of students pursuing PA degrees, who will comprise a significant share of the nation's healthcare workforce over the next decade.
Pinckney said it's heartbreaking because his goal of becoming a healthcare provider – within an already overburdened healthcare system – remains in limbo. "If nothing changes, then my dream of being a PA is probably shot," Pinckney said. "If nothing is done short of someone giving me, you know, a huge grant or scholarship, then this chapter for me is over," he later added.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) -- One of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top public affairs spokespeople resigned from his post over the FDA's fruit-flavored e-cigarettes authorization and its potential impact on minors, according to a resignation letter to President Donald Trump reviewed by ABC News.
In the letter, Richard Danker, the former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accuses senior agency officials in Kennedy's immediate office of approving e-cigarette flavors that would allegedly expose children to "nicotine addiction, lung damage, and a higher risk of cancer."
Danker also said the vape authorization "undermines" the department's recent guidance document related to youth risks of flavored nicotine, according to the letter.
He thanked Trump for the "honor of a lifetime" to serve in both presidential administrations. Danker's work portfolio includes economic regulatory roles, including a senior advisor position at the Department of Treasury during the first Trump administration. Danker hadn't worked in healthcare prior to his time at HHS.
The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again movement has touted its focus on combatting chronic disease and improving children’s health. In a statement to ABC News, an HHS spokesperson said Kennedy is advancing the MAHA agenda to confront the chronic disease epidemic head-on.
"Political appointees are here to execute that mission with urgency, discipline, and focus," according to the spokesperson.
"Individuals who lose sight of the mission and the responsibility they were entrusted with are free to move on from the agency. HHS remains fully committed to delivering results for the American people," the spokesperson said.
Danker provided ABC News with a copy of the resignation letter, but did not provide further comment.
The White House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The news comes as former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary left office after clashing with the White House over pressure from Trump to authorize the flavored vapes, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The issue has raised concerns with Makary, pediatrician groups and advocacy organizations about the potential impact on minors, ABC News reported.
The FDA approved four new devices made by Glas, including classic menthol, fresh menthol, gold, and sapphire pods. "Gold" is mango-flavored and "sapphire" is blueberry-flavored.
While the FDA said on its website last week that it continues to prioritize the removal of illicit vapes — including those that target minors — the approval of a flavored vape represents a significant shift for the agency.
Makary told ABC News' Linsey Davis in July, "There is not an approved vaping product in the United States that has one of these cutie-fruity flavors."
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) -- As President Donald Trump's administration touts its new federal dietary guidelines, experts and officials suggest there's a long road ahead before America’s students have healthier school meals.
With the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services partnering to address chronic disease -- aiming to place whole, nutrient-dense food at the center of diets -- the administration believes it has taken a major step toward solving America's youth health crises.
From Secretaries Brooke Rollins and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, there’s a full-scale push to make school meals healthier by next school year, but the USDA’s former Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long said their changes won't happen "overnight."
Long -- who was USDA’s Deputy Administrator for Child Nutrition under former President Barack Obama and during President Donald Trump’s first term -- told ABC News the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act, which is the school meals bill that was signed into law in 2010, ignited a shift to healthier school meals over a decade ago.
Celebrating the newest dietary guidelines, the foundation of dozens of federal feeding programs, including school meals, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said that her agency is submitting its proposed school meals rule by mid-spring. Meanwhile, implementing the meals in U.S. classrooms will see delays after the updated regulations, some health policy experts noted.
Dr. David Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, suggested the changes may take a while both in practice and culture.
“We have to address this on many levels,” Ludwig told ABC News, adding, “First, improving the guidelines that regulate food quality in schools. That's foundational.”
Ludwig echoed the Trump administration’s 2025-2030 guidelines, which are updated every five years, emphasizing that new school meal ingredients must reduce sugar and other processed carbohydrates and increase whole foods.
“Layer two is adequate funding so that not only healthful but delicious foods can be prepared,” he said, adding, “It's critical for children to understand that we don't want to raise a generation that thinks healthy foods are going to be just bland.”
Updates will be made through formal rulemaking, the government’s multi-step process that includes opportunities for public comment, to ensure USDA supports children’s access to nutritious, high-quality meals at school, according to a USDA spokesperson.
However, Long told ABC News that some of the President Joe Biden administration’s changes to reduce added sugar and sodium to school meals are still being implemented.
“You can't change this enormous system with 100,000 schools operating overnight,” she said, adding “You've got to allow time for people to be successful, for people to change menus, for them to procure the right products, for industry to be able to produce products that will help them bring down the sodium, bring down the added sugar etc.”
White House Senior Advisor Calley Means told ABC News there will be a “flurry” of regulation changes this year that will bolster kids’ meals at school. He bemoaned critics’ concerns that the administration lacks the funding to make the necessary changes.
“The government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on food procurement,” he said, adding, “We do not have a budget issue. There's been a political will problem that President Trump and Bobby Kennedy and Brooke Rollins have solved. There's care about this issue. We're going to be driving common sense solutions.”
Parental control over school meals
University of Illinois Professor of Nutrition Dr. Donald Layman believes promoting healthier meal options -- like increased protein and the subtraction of ultra-processed foods -- signals a “total sea change” for parents.
“I think it gives parents a different structure,” he told ABC News, adding, “They've been told that, well, eggs were bad for you, or that meats were bad for you, and they're left not knowing what to give their kids.”
“I've always felt that the issue was, how do we empower parents to do what they know is right, but they've been told they shouldn't do,” Layman added.
Hilary Boynton -- a California mom and former head of nutrition services at her kids’ school -- said, “people are starting to recognize that they have agency over their own health and [they can] be empowered by that.”
In Summer Barrett’s home state of West Virginia, a mom who says she's a part of the Make America Healthy Again Movement, said she’s grown frustrated with school meals containing excess amounts of sugar in Dunkin' Stix Donuts breakfasts.
“You're giving them 52 grams of sugar, and then you send them to class and you wonder, ‘oh, why can't you sit still,’” Barrett said. “Why can't you learn? Why can't you focus?" Well, cause you just jacked them up on more sugar than they should have in an entire day,” she added.
The new guidelines may signal that school meal changes are to come, thanks to MAHA moms like Barrett who have been “hungry for this nutrition science for a long time,” according to FDA Commissioner Makary. Makary and Kennedy have already started visiting schools to help promote programs that serve scratch-cooked meals with Whole Foods like fruits and vegetables.
Meanwhile, Cindy Long told ABC that the administration’s changes will only build on prior policy wins.
“I'm hoping that this will just continue on the path of, sort of, continuing to make school meals stronger and stronger,” she said.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.