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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.

  • 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 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.
  • One day after their first debate, John McCain is back in Washington to work on the economic bailout, while Barack Obama is campaigning in North Carolina and Virginia.
  • The ruling coalition is moving to oust President Pervez Musharraf. Some Western officials worry that a lengthy impeachment process will distract the government from the weakening economy and the fight against terrorism.
  • Scientist Bruce E. Ivins was respected by his colleagues at the Army biodefense research center at Fort Detrick in Maryland. His death, and his possible connection to an FBI investigation in the 2001 anthrax killings, hits a tight-knit community.
  • Congress this week passed — by a veto-proof margin — legislation to cancel a 10.6 percent pay cut to doctors who care for Medicare patients. But President Bush says he'll veto it anyway, because the bill also reduces funding to private insurance plans that participate in Medicare.
  • Senator Hillary Clinton has suspended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and is now endorsing former rival, Barack Obama. She spoke to supporters on Saturday in Washington.
  • The political party that runs Pakistan's parliament announces Saturday the candidate it wants to become the country's new prime minister: Yousaf Raza Gilani. He is likely to assume the post on Monday.
  • The parliament of Kosovo, the autonomous region of Serbia, has declared its independence, spurred by the region's majority ethnic Albanians. The move comes nine years after the United States and NATO began airstrikes against Serbian military targets in the former Yugoslavia.