Nurse Loan Forgiveness Act of 2006

The Nurse Loan Forgiveness Act of 2006 (H.R. 5349) was designed to provide financial relief to registered nurses by offering federal student loan forgiveness in exchange for their service in healthcare facilities. Under this proposal, nurses who worked for at least one year in an approved setting would be eligible for annual loan repayments made by the Department of Education.

The program would have provided $2,000 in loan forgiveness after the first year of employment, with the benefit amount increasing annually until reaching a maximum of $5,000 for the fifth year of service. This bill aimed to address nursing shortages by creating a financial incentive for professionals to remain in the healthcare workforce over a five-year period. However, the bill did not advance past the committee stage and never became law.