Andrea Seabrook
Andrea Seabrook covers Capitol Hill as NPR's Congressional Correspondent.
In each report, Seabrook explains the daily complexities of legislation and the longer trends in American politics. She delivers critical, insightful reporting – from the last Republican Majority, through the speakership of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats' control of the House, to the GOP landslide of 2010. She and NPR's Peter Overby won the prestigious Joan S. Barone award for their Dollar Politics series, which exposed the intense lobbying effort around President Obama's Health Care legislation. Seabrook and Overby's most recent collaboration, this time on the flow of money during the 2010 midterm elections, was widely lauded and drew a huge audience spike on NPR.org.
An authority on the comings and goings of daily life on Capitol Hill, Seabrook has covered Congress for NPR since January 2003 She took a year-and-a-half break, in 2006 and 2007, to host the weekend edition of NPR's newsmagazine, All Things Considered. In that role, Seabrook covered a wide range of topics, from the uptick in violence in the Iraq war, to the history of video game music.
A frequent guest host of NPR programs, including Weekend Edition and Talk of the Nation, Seabrook has also anchored NPR's live coverage of national party conventions and election night in 2006 and 2008.
Seabrook joined NPR in 1998 as an editorial assistant for the music program, Anthem. After serving in a variety of editorial and production positions, she moved to NPR's Mexico Bureau to work as a producer and translator, providing fill-in coverage of Mexico and Central America. She returned to NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1999 and worked on NPR's Science Desk and the NPR/National Geographic series, "Radio Expeditions." Later she moved to NPR's Morning Edition, starting as an editorial assistant and then moving up to Assistant Editor. She then began her on-air career as a weekend general assignment reporter for all NPR programs.
Before coming to NPR, Seabrook lived, studied and worked in Mexico City, Mexico. She ran audio for movies and television, and even had a bit part in a Mexican soap opera.
Seabrook earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Earlham College and studied Latin American literature at UNAM - La Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. While in college she worked at WECI, the student-run public radio station at Earlham College.
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On Capitol Hill, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has gone silent for the past month. The 12 members have been meeting behind closed doors — sometimes all together, sometimes in smaller groups — to try to hammer out a deal on future budget cuts. -
In a rare hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer discussed the role of judges under the Constitution. Among the revelations: Scalia considers himself out of touch with modern American values and Breyer likes to top off debates with a joke. -
The Senate Banking Committee approved Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in a party-line vote. But 44 Republican lawmakers have vowed to block any and every nominee in the full Senate until the bureau is changed. -
A few members voted Thursday in five minutes and two seconds to keep the government funded for four days — or until their colleagues return next week. Astonishing, considering it took the entire months of June and July for Congress to decide to continue paying bills it had already incurred. -
House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday unveiled his own jobs proposal. He also weighed in on President Obama's jobs plan. And in both instances, the Ohio congressman touted one main theme: the need to avoid raising taxes.
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At a hearing before the bipartisan deficit-cutting panel on Tuesday, the head of the Congressional Budget Office managed to short-circuit partisan bickering over the debt by laying out some facts: Trimming around the edges is not going to be enough to slash the deficit this fall, Doug Elmendorf warned. -
Republicans have a new front-runner for president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who doubts the science of climate change and says creationism should be taught alongside evolution. He's not alone in these views, which may be on display before a national audience at Wednesday night's GOP debate. -
Communities on the East Coast planned for hurricane Irene with help from analysts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA forecasters use data from federally-funded weather satellites to predict storms. One of those satellite programs is facing deep cuts in the latest round of congressional belt-tightening.
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House Democrats have thwarted a GOP attempt to remove New York Rep. Charles Rangel as head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Rangel is under a House inquiry for not disclosing all of his personal assets and income. The question is how Rangel's ethics woes shake out politically. -
Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota is perhaps the most ardent deficit hawk in his party, which makes him a pivotal figure in the Senate Finance Committee's "Gang of Six." The gang of three Democrats and three Republicans is working on a bipartisan health care bill, even as town halls erupt and compromise recedes.
