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 death of Osama bin Laden has given President Obama new national security cred with voters — but is it a game-changer on Capitol Hill? Or are Republicans right back to defunding health care, restricting abortion and refusing to raise the debt ceiling without huge spending cuts? -
Congressional leaders are reacting to the news that U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a military operation in Pakistan.
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President Obama's budget fell on Capitol Hill with a hard thud. In these cash-strapped times, just about everyone agrees some budget-cutting is needed, so few lawmakers are standing up to cheer for his spending plan. Generally though, Democrats agreed with its priorities, and Republicans, especially those in charge of the House, did not.
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The GOP leadership promised to cut $100 billion from the budget. Their proposed cuts, to be unveiled Thursday, come close to that mark only if they are counted as cuts to President Obama's spending proposals last year. They are smaller when prorated to what has been spent this fiscal year.
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Lawmakers are changing their security procedures in response to the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at an event in Tucson, Ariz., last month. It's made many of them think hard about the balance between open interaction with their constituents and keeping themselves safe. -
The part of the State of the Union that the cameras don't usually catch, is the flood of senators and representatives out of the House chamber and into Statuary Hall. That's where the Capitol press corps waits for their reactions to the president's speech.
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To show their commitment to bipartisanship, some Republicans and Democrats have pledged to sit with a member of the other party while listening to President Obama's speech Tuesday night. That's led pundits and lawmakers alike to bestow a new nickname on the usually solemn State of the Union: Date Night! -
House Democrats gathered for their annual retreat in Cambridge, Md., and got a pep talk Friday night from President Obama in a closed session. Democrats have a lot of soul-searching to do after a wave of rejection from voters and a new role — as the House minority.
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The Republican-controlled House voted to repeal President Obama's signature health care law Wednesday. But a repeal is going nowhere without approval by the Senate, and the Democratic-controlled Senate is not planning to take it up. Republicans say they'll find every other way possible to dismantle and defund the law.
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While the people of Tucson try to deal with the tragedy that struck in their town, people who work in the Capitol are reeling as well. Rep. Giffords is well known and well liked by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And the death of her young staffer has been a blow to other Congressional aides.
