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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.

  • A plane carrying the body of former President Ronald Reagan is making the journey to Washington, D.C. Reagan's flag-draped coffin will be carried by a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol Rotunda, where the public will pay respects beginning Wednesday night. Wednesday's ceremonies will include formal military funeral rites. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • Members of Congress are shown more photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse. Lawmakers describe images that are more graphic and sexually explicit than those that have been published so far. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies before Congress Friday about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody, one day after the U.S. House passed a resolution condemning the incidents. Rumsfeld's failure to inform Congress of the abuse before it was reported in the media has angered many lawmakers. Democrats intensify calls for him to resign. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook.
  • President Bush has reportedly privately scolded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for failing to tell him about pictures depicting the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. The White House has asked Congress for $25 billion in reserve funds to continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the rest of the year. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators descend on Washington, D.C. for the "March for Women's Lives." With the issue of abortion rights taking center stage, the march was the largest women's rights demonstration since 1992. The event also drew anti-abortion activists. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice briefs House and Senate Republicans on the situation in Iraq. The closed-door briefing comes near the end of a series of Congressional hearings examining troop deployment extensions, military costs and the planned June 30 transfer of power to an Iraqi government. Rice also met with some Senate Democrats in a meeting that was arranged at the last minute. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), head of the Foreign Relations Committee, holds hearings this week on the Bush administration's plan to transfer political power to Iraqis by a June 30 deadline. Some expert witnesses doubt the administration's ability to pull off a smooth and secure transfer of power. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential race, is trying to tout his plan for U.S. economic recovery. But he's finding it difficult to get anyone interested in anything other than Iraq and the commission investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports from Chicago, where Sen. Kerry made a campaign speech Friday.
  • As reports show the U.S. economy added 308,000 jobs in March, Republicans on Capitol Hill generally claim the numbers vindicate the GOP's tax policies. Democrats have conflicting reactions: relief that Americans are finding jobs, but criticism that job production is still not good enough. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
  • The U.S. Postal Service plans to allow Americans to take their ZIP codes with them when they move, NPR's Andrea Seabrook reported on April 1. No, the Postal Service has not lost its mind — April Fools' from All Things Considered.