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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One of the most drastic steps was a decision to adopt all new paper-backed voting machines before November after deciding that the paperless electronic equipment was vulnerable to attack. -
Virginia is one of two states to hold major elections this November, a year after Russians tried to hack into U.S. voting systems. It will be the first test of how much progress has been made by election officials and federal agencies on securing U.S. elections from attack.
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The Department of Homeland Security said earlier this year that it had evidence of Russian activity in 21 states. But they didn't inform individual states whether they were among those targeted. -
One witness suggested voters undergo the same kind of background check now applied to gun buyers, a function that system was never designed for. -
Ahead of a meeting in New Hampshire, the panel's co-chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, made questionable claims that the state allowed nonresidents to vote last year. -
President Trump's controversial commission looking into voter fraud holds its first meeting outside Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in New Hampshire. The federal panel has been unusually secretive and is being sued by voter advocacy groups, who want it to be more transparent about its agenda. Questions have also been raised by a Breitbart News article written by co-chair Kris Kobach alleging widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire last November.
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FEMA says it hopes to get people out of shelters and into transitional housing, such as hotels, as quickly as possible. Then they'll try to find rentals or other housing for victims, including manufactured homes, as a last resort.
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Tens of thousands of flood victims are going to need housing. It could be months, even years, before they'll be able to return home. -
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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When a disaster strikes, people everywhere often are inspired to spring into action. But donating good or services rarely is a good idea, experts say, and even cash donations could be better targeted. -
Weird things started to happen as people showed up to vote in parts of North Carolina on Nov. 8. Why didn't state workers know that their elections contractor had been hit by a cyberattack? -
For all the focus in 2016 on the cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, less attention was paid to what was happening in the states.
