美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Has Many Jobs Unfilled; Is He 'Deconstructing The Administrative State'?

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

President Trump¹ has yet to fill hundreds of senior-level positions throughout the government. He's questioned the need for, as he put it, all those jobs, but simply leaving post vacant may not be the best way to accomplish what his adviser² Stephen Bannon has called deconstructing the administrative³ state. NPR's Brian Naylor has more.

BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE⁴: When he spoke⁵ last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon laid out three goals of the Trump presidency⁶ - national security and sovereignty, economic nationalism and this.

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STEPHEN BANNON: The third, broadly, line to walk is what is deconstruction of the administrative state.

NAYLOR: Let's deconstruct that term for a moment.

JOSEPH POSTELL: The term administrative state is typically used to describe overregulation.

NAYLOR: Joseph Postell teaches political science at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and has written about the topic.

POSTELL: Sometimes it's even used to describe the rise of administrative agencies and the number of agencies that we have.

NAYLOR: There are some 1,100 executive branch jobs that require Senate confirmation⁷, and so far Trump has nominated just a handful. For instance, none of the deputy secretaries or undersecretaries at the Department of State have been named. The number three job at the Pentagon is unfilled. Two key posts overseeing Trump's immigration crackdown are held by acting⁸ directors. No FEMA director or TSA administrator⁹ has been named. And other high level posts at the Treasury¹⁰, the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services also remain vacant. Paul Light, a professor of public service at NYU, calls this a necklace government. The agency heads are in place, but little more.

PAUL LIGHT: When you have a necklace government, when you're missing all those positions between the Cabinet secretaries and the sort of day-to-day work of government, government is basically frozen.

NAYLOR: But maybe the president wants it that way. This is what he told Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" last week.

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POSTELL: A lot of those jobs I don't want to appoint because they're unnecessary to have. You know, we have so many people in government, even me - I look at some of the jobs, and it's people over people over people. I say - what do all these people do? You don't need all those jobs.

NAYLOR: Light says the federal leadership hierarchy¹¹ has been thickening, as he puts it, for the last 50 years. But he adds if Trump wants to change that, he's going about it the wrong way.

LIGHT: He's making a mistake if he thinks that leaving many of these positions open is going to enhance his control of government. It doesn't. I'm a believer in flattening¹² the federal hierarchy, but I do not think you do it by accident.

NAYLOR: Joseph Postell says administrative state critics believe that federal agencies have grown too big and also have too much power, including the power to essentially¹³ write their own laws. He notes this is not new.

POSTELL: The size of government and the amount of regulation that we have in America has always been an object of dispute, going all the way back to Hamilton and Jefferson in the 1790s. What has changed that is given rise to the administrative state is essentially the accumulation of all these powers in the hands of people who are not directly elected by the people.

NAYLOR: So it may be that Trump is trying to return power to lawmakers from what critics often call unelected bureaucrats¹⁴. But Postell says dismantling¹⁵ the administrative state requires Congress to act to rein¹⁶ in agencies and won't be achieved simply by leaving important government posts unfilled. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

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 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。

3 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

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 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

7 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

8 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。

9 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

10 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

11 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。

12 flattening   

n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词

参考例句：

• Flattening of the right atrial border is also seen in constrictive pericarditis. 右心房缘变平亦见于缩窄性心包炎。
• He busied his fingers with flattening the leaves of the book. 他手指忙着抚平书页。

13 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。

14 bureaucrats   

n.官僚( bureaucrat的名词复数 )；官僚主义；官僚主义者；官僚语言

参考例句：

• That is the fate of the bureaucrats, not the inspiration of statesmen. 那是官僚主义者的命运，而不是政治家的灵感。 来自辞典例句
• Big business and dozens of anonymous bureaucrats have as much power as Japan's top elected leaders. 大企业和许多不知名的官僚同日本选举出来的最高层领导者们的权力一样大。 来自辞典例句

15 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。

16 rein   

n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治

参考例句：

• The horse answered to the slightest pull on the rein.只要缰绳轻轻一拉,马就作出反应。
• He never drew rein for a moment till he reached the river.他一刻不停地一直跑到河边。