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 president will propose in his 2017 budget that families who qualify for subsidized school meals receive benefits to buy an extra $45 in groceries per child each month when school is out.
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There's no dancing or passing the hat at these new rent parties. There is music — and online fundraising. Recently, a classical violinist played a concert in an Annapolis apartment to help the tenant.
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Public housing residents would be banned from smoking, not just in public spaces on the premises, but in their own apartments under a proposal Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal, which is drawing criticism from many residents and being praised by others concerned about second-hand smoke.
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The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage for 2014 on Wednesday. Poverty in the U.S. was unchanged last year, despite more jobs.
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Disabled Americans are twice as likely to be poor as those without disabilities. They continue to face many financial and physical barriers, despite the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
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Some of the largest, most established walkathons and similar events that raise cash for charity aren't doing as well as they used to. There's more competition, fundraisers say, for money and time.
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Almost 680,000 children in the United States were victims of abuse in 2013. And state and local governments aren't doing enough to report abuse and investigate it, according to an independent study.
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The number of food insecure Americans did not decline between 2012 and 2013, according to the USDA. And the level of food insecurity remains much higher than it was before the recession.
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The ALS Association has raised more than $94 million in recent weeks via its online ice bucket challenge — compared with $2.7 million this time last year. Now what?
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A survey by Feeding America, a network of U.S. food banks, found that one-quarter of all U.S. military households used a food pantry in 2013. But service members are often reluctant to seek such help.