The loan forgiveness program expired at the end of June 2013. Nixon signed a higher education bill Thursday that includes a provision removing that expiration date.

The bill also renames the program as the “Dr. Merrill Townley Large Animal Veterinary Student Loan Program.”

Townley was a veterinarian from Chamois who practiced throughout mid-Missouri. He also served as a Republican in the Missouri House from 1983 through 1994 and again from 1997 through 2004.

He died in November 2012 at the age of 78.