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 won the prestigious Joan S. Barone award for their 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 , 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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The Obama administration has set a hard deadline of Aug. 2 for Congress to come up with a deal on raising the debt ceiling, and pass it into law. But the parties have hit a stalemate on the issue of taxes.
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Rep. Anthony Weiner was a rising star who wanted to be the next mayor of New York. Instead, he's out of Congress and in rehab.
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The influential group, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, held a meeting Tuesday that featured heavy-hitters from the economic world, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. They warned that the budget crisis is worse than many people assume, and fixing it will be very painful.
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Political scandals don't always kill the participants. Some survive. Some give up the ghost. Some whose careers have died keep on going. -
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) said he will not resign after admitting to inappropriate exchanges with women online and tweeting a lewd picture of himself. Democratic leaders must decide whether to ask Weiner to resign. In the past, Weiner has been an effective communicator for their causes. -
At a news conference in New York Monday, Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted he sent a lewd photo of himself over the Internet. He also said he carried on inappropriate Internet conversations with a half dozen women. Weiner said he was ashamed and embarrassed, but added he would not resign. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for an ethics investigation.
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The long-distance signature machine has its critics, but it had a great admirer in Thomas Jefferson and was found to produce a valid presidential signature during the George W. Bush administration. Now, it has signed an extension of the USA Patriot Act into law.
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House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan was unbowed Thursday after the expected, but nonetheless stinging, rejection of his budget and Medicare proposal by the Senate. Ryan told NPR reporters he would do it all over again. He continued to call for Congress to do something urgent about the public debt — and continued to reject any notion of tax increases to help balance the ledger.
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In 1958, a young Nancy D'Alesandro watched a high school friend pull a debate topic out of a bowl. The question: "Do women think?" Now, the person who achieved the highest political rank for a woman in American history reflects on how far she's come — and the attacks that seem more focused on her appearance and her ambition, rather than her ideas. -
Political wives and their messy marriages have been at the top of the news this week — from Maria Shriver to Callista Gingrich to Cheri Daniels. It's not a new phenomenon. Says one political consultant: "There is no definition of fair game. So whatever you think it is, you can disabuse yourself of any of that notion."
