Financial Reform Law Aims to Change Some Ways of Wall Street

September 3rd, 2010 at 02:46am Under Economy Report

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

On Wednesday, President Obama signed into law the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

BARACK OBAMA: “These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history — in history.”

Together, the changes represent the biggest rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression. At the heart of the two thousand three hundred pages in the bill are promises to protect average Americans.

Congress agreed to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the Federal Reserve will pay for it. The central bank will budget about five hundred million dollars a year.

Travis Plunkett is legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer rights group. He says this new independent office will have a lot of responsibility — and that is a good thing.

TRAVIS PLUNKETT: “We’re going to have one federal consumer financial protection bureau. If it succeeds, people will know it. If it fails, people will know it. And they will try to hold it accountable.”

The bureau will set rules for the marketplace and enforce existing laws. One goal is to keep home buyers from getting bigger loans than they can pay for. But two areas where the bureau will not have power is over auto lenders or banks with assets of less than ten billion dollars.

Financial interests spent millions fighting the bill. The House of Representatives passed its version in December. Last week the Senate voted final approval with the aid of three Republican senators.

House Minority Leader John Boehner called the financial reform bill “ill conceived.”

JOHN BOEHNER: “I think it’s going to make credit harder for the American people to get, clearly harder for businesses to get.”

But President Obama says Wall Street took irresponsible risks that threatened the financial system.

Under the new law, banks no longer can own or invest in certain trading operations. The government has new powers to seize failing financial companies. These include businesses that, during the financial crisis, were considered “too big to fail.”

And President Obama says the law does something else.

BARACK OBAMA: “Finally, because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes. There will be no more tax-funded bailouts. Period.”

Regulatory agencies will write hundreds of new rules for banks and other financial companies. This follows years of deregulation.

Opponents in Congress say they will try to block some measures in the new law. But even if those efforts fail, it is too soon to know just how strong the new rules will be.

And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.  You can comment on our program at voaspecialenglish.com.  And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and iTunes at VOA Learning English.  I’m Steve Ember. I’m Steve Ember.

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Obama Signs Spending Bill to Protect Teachers’ Jobs

September 1st, 2010 at 02:43am Under Education report

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

President Obama signed legislation Tuesday to provide twenty-six billion dollars to the states for education and healthcare.

The measure includes ten billion dollars for education and sixteen billion for Medicaid, the joint state-federal government medical program for the poor.

The legislation will help one hundred sixty thousand teachers and one hundred fifty thousand police and public service workers keep their jobs.

The House of Representatives approved the bill Tuesday. House members had already begun a six-week holiday when the Senate approved the measure last week.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took the rare step of calling House lawmakers back to Washington to vote on the bill and send it to President Obama without delay.

President Obama has stressed the importance of education for all Americans. He said this is necessary for the country to compete among some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The president spoke Monday at the University of Texas. He talked about the decrease in college graduation rates in the United States.

BARACK OBAMA: “In a single generation, we’ve fallen from first place to twelfth place in college graduation rates for young adults. That is unacceptable, but it is not irreversible. We can retake the lead.”

President Obama said educational success and economic well-being are linked, especially in a world economy driven by information and technology. His goal is to increase the percentage of college graduates from forty percent to sixty percent by the year twenty-twenty.

The president said the federal government has already reformed the student loan system and increased tax credits for families struggling to pay college education costs.

Democrats in Congress say spending for the new bill will not add to the federal budget deficit.

But some Republican lawmakers criticized the measure. House Republican leader John Boehner dismissed the emergency jobs measure as more wasteful spending aimed at pleasing the Democrats’ traditional union allies.

JOHN BOEHNER: “The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs, ‘Stop!’ And Washington continues to spend, spend, spend.”

Hours before the vote Tuesday, President Obama told reporters at the White House that education and the safety of communities should not be a political party issue.

BARACK OBAMA: “Those interests are widely shared throughout this country. A challenge that affects parents, children and citizens in almost every community in America should not be a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It is an American problem.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Lawan Davis. You can read and download scripts at voaspecialenglish.com  I’m Steve Ember.

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