美国国家公共电台 NPR White House Takes Aim At Financial Protections For Military

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Next we have an exclusive story. The Trump¹ administration is taking aim at a law designed to protect military service members from getting cheated by shady lending practices. NPR has obtained documents that show the White House is proposing changes that critics say would leave service members vulnerable to getting ripped off when they buy cars. NPR's Chris Arnold has the story.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE²: The Military Lending Act is supposed to protect service members from predatory loans and financial products. Christopher Peterson is a law professor at the University of Utah. He helped to write the regulations for the Defense³ Department. And we showed him these internal documents, the proposal to change the rules for auto⁴ dealers⁶.

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON: If the White House does this, it'll be manipulating the Military Lending Act regulations at the behest of auto dealers and banks to try and make it easier to sell overpriced rip-off products to military service members.

ARNOLD: OK. Here's how this works. When you drive a new car off the lot, it loses some value right away. And car dealers will point this out and tell you, hey, if you crash and total your car, you could be out a pile of money. That's because your insurance might not pay you as much as you owe on your car loan. The odds⁷ are you're not going to total your car, but...

PETERSON: Car dealers push it so much and they scare people so to convince people they've got to have this gap insurance.

ARNOLD: That is insurance to cover the gap between what you owe on your car loan and the value of your car that's covered by your main insurance policy. The thing is, you can get this kind of insurance for very little money. Peterson says it's often just $20 or $30 a year from your regular car insurance company.

PETERSON: But if you buy it from your car dealer⁵, they may mark it up for 500, 600, 700. I've seen gap insurance policies being sold for $1,500.

ARNOLD: That's over the course of the loan. Now, the rules to protect service members effectively block auto dealers from tacking⁸ on an extra product like overpriced gap insurance and then rolling it into the car loan, but the industry has been lobbying to change that. And the White House appears to be sympathetic. It just sent the latest version of a proposal to the Defense Department, and documents show it would give the car dealers what they want. Paul Metrey is with the National Automobile⁹ Dealers Association.

PAUL METREY: Service members certainly should have the same access to credit protection that their civilian¹⁰ counterparts have. And now when they engage in these transactions, this valuable gap product is effectively not available to them.

ARNOLD: The thing is, though, that active-duty military personnel are not civilians¹¹, and they get some special protections under the law. And Peterson says that service members can still get this kind of insurance, and often more cheaply, elsewhere.

PETERSON: If somebody really wants to have some gap insurance to protect them from this situation, they should just go to their insurance company and buy it.

ARNOLD: Meanwhile, there's another change afoot that critics say would weaken the enforcement of the Military Lending Act more broadly. This involves Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration's acting¹² director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under Mulvaney, the bureau is planning to halt regular monitoring of payday lenders and other firms to see whether they're violating the act and cheating people in the military. Retired¹³ Army Colonel Paul Kantwill doesn't like the sound of that. He recently left his position at the consumer protection bureau, where he worked on issues facing service members.

PAUL KANTWILL: I am troubled by this. I am very concerned about it.

ARNOLD: The bureau says it will still investigate complaints of abuses, but Kantwill says that the bureau's stopping its efforts to actively¹⁴ monitor whether lenders are violating the Military Lending Act.

KANTWILL: This would be like removing the sentries¹⁵ from the guard posts guarding your military installation or your compound.

ARNOLD: And Kantwill says the troops need protection. Before this law was in place, he says a lot of service members got stuck in damaging, high-cost loans.

KANTWILL: For years and years, since I was a lieutenant¹⁶ in the Army JAG Corps¹⁷ in 1990, we saw the payday lenders and the vehicle title loan places. I think there were 21 of them right outside of the main gate of Fort Campbell, Ky., And the Military Lending Act and the regulations that implement¹⁸ it have gone a long way toward eliminating a lot of those practices.

ARNOLD: Kantwill says when people in the military get mired¹⁹ in debt and high-cost loans, that creates problems in terms of military readiness. They can lose security clearances²⁰ or just get distracted by financial trouble at home.

KANTWILL: And it can get even more serious than that. Service members are kicked out of the service for reasons that involve their inability to handle their financial affairs.

ARNOLD: All of that is why Congress passed these special protections. So why would the consumer protection bureau pull back on enforcement this way? Well, documents show that under Mulvaney, the bureau is now claiming that it may not have the legal authority to actively go out looking for violations²¹ of the act. Colonel Kantwill disagrees.

KANTWILL: There is broad, specific authority for the bureau to be able to examine for these sorts of issues.

ARNOLD: As far as the changes requested by the auto dealers, allowing them to roll products like extra insurance into car loans, the Defense Department says the issue is still in the proposal stage and that any changes will, quote, "be made only if necessary and in a way that does not reduce the protections afforded to service members and their families." Chris Arnold, NPR News.

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 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。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

6 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

7 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

8 tacking   

（帆船）抢风行驶，定位焊[铆]紧钉

参考例句：

• He was tacking about on this daily though perilous voyage. 他在进行这种日常的、惊险的航行。
• He spent the afternoon tacking the pictures. 他花了一个下午的时间用图钉固定那些图片。

9 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

11 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

12 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

13 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

14 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

15 sentries   

哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We posted sentries at the gates of the camp. 我们在军营的大门口布置哨兵。
• We were guarded by sentries against surprise attack. 我们由哨兵守卫，以免遭受突袭。

16 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

17 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

18 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

19 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 clearances   

清除( clearance的名词复数 )； 许可； （录用或准许接触机密以前的）审查许可； 净空

参考例句：

• But I can't get to him without clearances. 但是没有证明我就没法见到他。
• The bridge and the top of the bus was only ten clearances. 桥与公共汽车车顶之间的间隙只有十厘米。

21 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。