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Legislation that would prohibit the State Department of Health from suspending medical professionals’ licenses for failure to pay government-backed student loans passed its second House committee Wednesday morning.

121 suspensions were issued last year alone.

Sponsor Representative Nicholas Duran said the number has been steadily increasing in recent years.

“What we don’t want to do is create a way where they get into a hump or something, life happens or something happens in their life happens where they can’t pay a student loan, but now we’ve also created a larger sort of problem for folks now that they make have had their license taken away,” said Duran.

The bill also cleared its second Senate Committee Monday.

It has one more stop in both chambers before it’s ready for a vote on the House and Senate floor.