Pam Fessler
Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
In her reporting at NPR, Fessler does stories on homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reports on what non-profit groups, the government, and others are doing to reduce poverty and how those efforts are working. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award.
Fessler also covers elections and voting, including efforts to make voting more accessible, accurate, and secure. She has done countless stories on everything from the debate over state voter identification laws to Russian hacking attempts and long lines at the polls.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Fessler became NPR's first Homeland Security correspondent. For seven years, she reported on efforts to tighten security at ports, airports, and borders, and the debate over the impact on privacy and civil rights. She also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, The 9/11 Commission Report, Social Security, and the Census. Fessler was one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and NPR's chief election editor. She coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections in 1996 and 1998. In her more than 25 years at NPR, Fessler has also been deputy Washington Desk editor and Midwest National Desk editor.
Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked there for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Fessler has a master's of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.
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The Trump administration has proposed changing food stamp rules to require able-bodied adults without children to work 20 hours or more a week or lose benefits. -
A week and a half after the end of the government shutdown, low-income contractors are still trying to recover, while worrying that they might face another shutdown next week.
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Poor families are already having an increasingly difficult time finding an affordable place to live thanks to high rent, static incomes and a shortage of housing aid. -
President Trump has dissolved the commission he had set up to investigate claims of voter fraud. Steve Inskeep speaks with Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, one of the former commissioners.
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President Trump dissolved the presidential commission he established last year to investigate claims of voter fraud in the 2016 election.
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Some countries, such as France, Austria and Poland, prohibit removing people from their homes during cold weather but that's not the case in the United States. -
Voter confidence was shaken by revelations that Russia targeted election systems in at least 21 states last year. A year later, efforts to tighten voting cybersecurity is making some progress.
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The devastating floods in Texas have led to a need for massive aid, including from charities and nonprofit groups. Most say what they need is money, not things. And they hope donors will be around for what could be a years-long recovery.
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The panel has faced credibility problems right from the start and the concerns have only grown after it asked all 50 states to send detailed voter registration records. -
Most Democrats say that "everything possible" should be done to make it easy for citizens to vote. Most Republicans don't agree.
