Tamara Keith

Tamara Keith is NPR's Congressional Reporter on the Washington Desk.

Since joining NPR in 2009, Keith has reported on topics spanning the business world from covering the debt downgrade and debt ceiling crisis to the latest in policy debates, legal issues and technology trends. In early 2010, she was on the ground in Haiti covering the aftermath of the country's disastrous earthquake and later she covered the oil spill in the Gulf.

Keith's contribution to NPR has included conceiving and reporting for the 2011 NPR series The Road Back To Work, a year-long series featuring the audio diaries of six people in St. Louis who began the year unemployed and searching for work.

Keith has deep roots in public radio and got her start in news by writing and voicing essays for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday as a teenager. While in college, she launched her career at NPR Member Station KQED's California Report, covering topics including agriculture and the environment. In 2004, Keith began working at NPR Member Station WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, where she reported on politics and the 2004 presidential campaign.

Keith went back to California to open the state capital bureau for NPR Member Station KPCC/Southern California Public Radio. In 2006, Keith returned to KQED, serving as the Sacramento-region reporter for two years.

In 2001, Keith began working on B-Side Radio, an hour-long public radio show and podcast that she co-founded, produced, hosted, edited, and distributed for nine years.

Over the course of her career Keith has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an award for best news writing from the APTRA California/Nevada and a first place trophy from the Society of Environmental Journalists for "Outstanding Story Radio." Keith was a 2010-2011 National Press Foundation Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow.

Keith earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree at the UCB Graduate School of Journalism.

Pages

3:07pm

Fri May 17, 2013
It's All Politics

Conservative Advice To GOP: Don't Legislate, Focus On Scandals

Originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 4:25 pm

Heritage Action, the political activist offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation, has some advice for House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor: focus on the scandals plaguing the Obama administration and stay away from legislation that could "highlight major schisms" within the House Republican Conference.

Read more

5:23pm

Thu May 16, 2013
Politics

House Republicans Take Another Stab At Repealing Obamacare

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 7:24 pm

The House held a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act — again. This time it was to make freshman Republicans happy by giving them a vote to take home.

2:51am

Wed May 8, 2013
It's All Politics

Cantor's Rebranding Effort Tested By House Republicans

Originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 11:43 am

When the House votes Wednesday on a bill called the Working Families Flexibility Act, it will be the latest test of a Republican effort at rebranding.

The architect of that effort in the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has so far had a mixed record.

Read more

5:12am

Sun April 28, 2013
It's All Politics

House Leadership Crashes Into Outside Hurdles On Bills

Originally published on Sun April 28, 2013 6:40 pm

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images

The House was set to vote this week on a bill modifying the president's health care law. The Republican bill was supported by the leadership, but ran into trouble and was pulled from the floor before the scheduled vote.

It's an example of the kind of obstacles Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, faces in getting legislation through the House. In many recent cases, his problem hasn't been the Democrats as much as members of his own party, backed by proudly conservative outside groups.

Read more

4:47pm

Fri April 26, 2013
Around the Nation

Flight Delays Prompt End To Air Traffic Controller Furloughs

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

We also have some sequester news today. The House approved a bill, and the president says he'll sign it, to end the furlough of air traffic controllers. Short-staffed control towers translated into thousands of flight delays this week, all because of those automatic across-the-board spending cuts. NPR's Tamara Keith has that story.

Read more

5:16am

Thu April 25, 2013
National Security

Should Air Traffic Controllers Be Included In Furloughs?

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 2:46 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Air travelers are growing less and less happy. Automatic budget cuts are now leading to hundreds of flight delays, about half of all delayed flights this week.

NPR's Tamara Keith reports.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Up until this point, the effects of the sequester have been scattered and hard to pin down: hiring freezes, delayed park openings. But then the furloughs of air traffic controllers the Federal Aviation Administration had been threatening for months hit and, bam, the sequester got real, real fast.

Read more

5:19pm

Tue April 16, 2013
It's All Politics

How Congress Quietly Overhauled Its Insider-Trading Law

Originally published on Tue April 16, 2013 5:46 pm

Credit Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images

The legislative process on Capitol Hill is often slow and grinding. There are committee hearings, filibuster threats and hours of floor debate. But sometimes, when Congress really wants to get something done, it can move blindingly fast.

That's what happened when Congress moved to undo large parts of a popular law known as the STOCK Act last week.

Read more

6:06pm

Mon April 15, 2013
Politics

The Next Debt Ceiling Deadline

Originally published on Mon April 15, 2013 10:02 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And now, to Capitol Hill where lawmakers are debating several big ideas these days. There's the gun control bill in the Senate and a possible compromise on immigration reform. But that's not all. In just a few months, another fiscal fight could steal the spotlight.

NPR's Tamara Keith has this look forward to a potential battle over the debt ceiling again.

Read more

4:09pm

Thu April 11, 2013
It's All Politics

On Message: Who Wants To Cut Social Security?

Credit Kevin G. Hall / MCT/Landov

The president's $3.77 trillion fiscal 2014 budget plan is expansive. But the part getting the most attention is his proposal to change the way the government calculates inflation using a measure known in economics-speak as chained CPI.

Read more

5:15am

Thu April 11, 2013
Politics

'Chained CPI' Worked Into Obama's 2014 Budget

Originally published on Thu April 11, 2013 10:59 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep reporting this week from Caracas, Venezuela.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Read more

Pages