美国国家公共电台 NPR Student Loan Watchdog Quits, Says Trump Administration 'Turned Its Back' On Borrowers

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The federal official in charge of protecting student borrowers from predatory lending practices stepped down this morning. In a scathing¹ resignation letter, he says the Trump² administration, quote, "has turned its back on young people and their financial futures³."

NPR's Cory Turner broke this story and joins us now here in the studio. Hi, Cory.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE⁴: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: Tell us more about the man who wrote this letter.

TURNER: Sure. His name is Seth Frotman. And for the past three years, he has been what's called the student loan ombudsman. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB - the bureau was created in the wake of the financial crisis to basically protect borrowers from shady lending practices. And to be honest, the CFPB has done a lot for borrowers. And that includes Frotman and his office. All told, the CFPB has handled more than 60,000 student loan complaints. They've clawed back more than $750 million on behalf of aggrieved⁵ borrowers.

Frotman didn't begin as the ombudsman. He was actually hired at the CFPB at the very beginning by Holly⁶ Petraeus. And her job - she's now retired⁷ - was to manage the CFPB's protections for military service members. Petraeus tells NPR that she felt, quote, "privileged" to have hired Frotman as her adviser⁸. And she says, quote, "Seth is a true public servant. I think he's leaving for the purest of motives⁹. He wants to help student borrowers."

SHAPIRO: And in this resignation letter, he didn't just say the Trump administration turned its back on young people and their financial futures. He gave bullet points with specifics.

TURNER: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: Tell us about some of them.

TURNER: It's a long letter, and he went through a lot of things. A few of those things are new. Several of those things I as an education reporter and my colleagues have reported on already. I'll just go through a few of them, Ari. Over the past year, the Trump administration has clearly sidelined Frotman's office for students. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would stop sharing information with the bureau about the department's oversight¹⁰ of federal student loans.

And then recently in May, there was a major shakeup in Frotman's office. The Office for Students and Young Consumers (ph) - that's what it was called - was folded into the bureau's financial education office. Now, that sounds kind of tedious, but here's what it means. It was largely seen by consumer advocates as a really big, symbolic¹¹ shift away from investigation¹².

And in terms of new things that Frotman mentions in this letter, he accuses the CFPB's leadership of suppressing a report prepared by his office revealing new evidence that some of the nation's largest banks were saddling students with legally dubious¹³ account fees.

SHAPIRO: That leadership includes Mick Mulvaney, the man who President Trump appointed to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How much does he have to do with this?

TURNER: Well, it's hard to say. I mean, we should say Mulvaney is right now wearing many hats. He is also President Trump's budget director. So he's got his hands full. But as you say, he is also the acting¹⁴ director at the CFPB. More importantly, I think we need to go back to Mulvaney's life before he was a part of the Trump administration, before there was a Trump administration.

He was a well-known Republican congressman¹⁵ from South Carolina. And he was one of the CFPB's fiercest critics. He once called the bureau a, quote, "joke in a sick, sad kind of way," end quote. And that's because Mulvaney argued it often acted above the law and with no accountability to Congress. It's as if he really saw the CFPB as a kind of rogue¹⁶ arm of the government.

SHAPIRO: And what is the CFPB saying today about this very striking resignation?

TURNER: Basically nothing, Ari. After repeated requests for comment, I finally got a very short email from CFPB. And it reads in full, quote, "thanks for reaching out. Regarding your inquiry¹⁷, the bureau does not comment on specific personnel matters. We hope that all of our departing employees find fulfillment in other pursuits, and we thank them for their service."

SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Cory Turner. And you can read Frotman's resignation letter in full at our website npr.org. Thanks, Cory.

TURNER: You're welcome, Ari.

1 scathing   

adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词)

参考例句：

• a scathing attack on the new management 针对新的管理层的猛烈抨击
• Her speech was a scathing indictment of the government's record on crime. 她的演讲强烈指责了政府在犯罪问题上的表现。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

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 aggrieved   

adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• He felt aggrieved at not being chosen for the team. 他因没被选到队里感到愤愤不平。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She is the aggrieved person whose fiance&1& did not show up for their wedding. 她很委屈，她的未婚夫未出现在他们的婚礼上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

7 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。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

10 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

11 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

12 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

13 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

14 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。

15 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。

16 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

17 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。