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 Friday, President Obama stopped by the Democrats' retreat in Maryland, where he recapped the themes of his State of the Union address and previewed the Democrats' election message: They've done everything they can, they'll say, and Republicans have played politics. -
When Republicans took over the majority in the House of Representatives, they had a strong sense of unity and purpose. Their mood is more sober a year later, after a series of partisan political fights throughout 2011 blocked their agenda and tarnished their image among voters. So this past weekend, the House GOP gathered in Baltimore to regroup and set out their priorities for 2012. -
They spent weeks vowing to oppose a short-term compromise bill extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment insurance. But in the end, not one of them showed up to oppose Speaker Boehner's plan. NPR has new details about the Tea Party's private deliberations. -
Newt Gingrich has spent decades weaving relationships in and around government — starting with his successful campaign to win the House majority back in the early 1990s. Some of his most ardent supporters now worked with him back then — but some of his angriest opponents did, too. -
Lawmakers have spent much of this year struggling to reach a deal that could get budget deficits under control. But the problem has been developing for at least a decade. In 2000, there was a $200 billion surplus.
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In the 1950s, Rand felt that her ideal of unfettered capitalism was missing in politics. But today, her ideas are alive and well-represented in the U.S. Capitol. Her philosophy has sunk so deeply into our political thought, many people don't even recognize it as hers anymore.
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Herman Cain is near the top of a new national poll, despite battling allegations of sexual harassment from a dozen years ago. So what do his likely fans at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference think of Cain and charges against him? NPR's Andrea Seabrook was there and talked to some of them.
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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. -
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.
