美国国家公共电台 NPR Worries That A Federal Student Loan Watchdog Will Be Muzzled

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

If you've got student loans, you might want to listen closely to this next story. The Trump¹ administration is diluting² the power of a federal office that's supposed to look out for people with student loans. It's called the office of Students and Young Consumers. And over the years, it has helped return close to a billion dollars to student loan borrowers who were wronged. Critics worry that this new move will make it hard, if not impossible, for the agency to keep doing that work. NPR's Chris Arnold joins us now. He has obtained an internal government memo³ outlining this change. Hey, Chris.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE⁴: Hey, Rachel and David.

MARTIN: So this involves the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has a new boss who has been really controversial. And now we've got this memo. What's going on here?

ARNOLD: Right. So this is an ongoing⁵ story of the president finding basically the person who disliked this bureau the most and putting that person in charge of running it.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

ARNOLD: We're talking about former representative - or former Congressman⁶ Mick Mulvaney.

MARTIN: Right.

ARNOLD: He was a Republican, sponsored legislation to abolish this bureau when he was in Congress. And he and other Republicans feel like, look, it's too powerful, it's been too aggressive. And since he's come on board, he's taken a series of steps to sort of water down its mission.

MARTIN: Right.

ARNOLD: And in this latest move, he's taken the unit at the bureau that works to protect student loan borrowers and essentially⁷ given it a demotion. So it's now under the control of a different division that does financial education, and that division doesn't go after wrongdoers and doesn't do the kinds of things that it was doing before.

MARTIN: OK. So what does that mean for people who have student loans? I mean, you say it's been a demotion for this particular agency. What's that going to mean in practice?

ARNOLD: Right. I mean, it may not sound like the most terrible thing in the world, but this is why people are upset. And this has been a very active office in the past. For example, tens of thousands of active military service members were being overcharged on their student loans. And this office looked into this. It got the Justice Department involved. And it clawed back $60 million that got returned to service members.

MARTIN: Wow.

ARNOLD: And not only that, it changed industry practices so that this would stop happening. It also had a hand in other lawsuits⁸ and settlements - were giving more than $750 million back to people who had been wronged with student loans. And so the worry is that this watchdog will now be told, you know, why don't you stick to printing out pamphlets about financial education for students and stuff and stop doing all these other things?

MARTIN: So just distribute educational materials and don't go after the bad guys.

ARNOLD: Right. And I talked to former Congress - or former Consumer Protection Bureau lawyer Christopher Peterson. Here's what he had to say about this move by Mulvaney.

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON: This is an appalling⁹ step. This is a limitation of one of the most important and effective offices looking out for student loan borrowers all across America.

MARTIN: So then you've got to ask the question, why would they do this? I mean, what is Mick Mulvaney saying as the justification¹⁰ for this?

ARNOLD: Well, in a statement, his press person says this is just a, quote, "modest organizational chart change" and that there is, quote, "no formal or even practical change." So basically nothing to see here, nothing to be concerned about. But current and former staffers at the bureau and people with consumer groups, they all say we're not really buying that. And they say, look, Mulvaney's already changed the mission statement of the bureau. He's said he's going to make it a much less aggressive regulator. They see this as part of that, and they say, look, we just crested¹¹ the $1.5 trillion mark for student loans. That's twice what it was a decade ago. This isn't the time to weaken this office, whose only mission it is to protect the rights of student loan borrowers. There'll be out today at the bureau. So we'll be watching to see what happens next.

MARTIN: All right. NPR's Chris Arnold for us this morning. Thanks so much, Chris.

ARNOLD: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELSE'S "AMBRE")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 diluting   

稀释，冲淡( dilute的现在分词 )； 削弱，使降低效果

参考例句：

• A companion would have been a distraction, diluting the pathos of the moment. 要是有一个伴侣在旁就会分散我的注意，冲淡此时此刻的哀婉之情。
• Diluting agent has certain transparency for ink multi-color overprint. 冲淡剂具有必定的透明量，适分油不朱的众色叠印。

3 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

9 appalling   

adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。

10 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

11 crested   

adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• a great crested grebe 凤头䴙䴘
• The stately mansion crested the hill. 庄严的大厦位于山顶。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》