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Meet our Newsroom

CQ’s team of highly esteemed and award-winning journalists are policy experts with decades of experience covering covering Congress, the White House, and federal courts. You can trust them to bring you the insightful, comprehensive, and nonpartisan analysis and editorial coverage you need to make better decisions.

Get to know some of our journalists from the most trusted, award-winning newsroom on Capitol Hill.

Jason Dick

Editor in Chief

Capitol Hill

Jason Dick is CQ Roll Call’s editor in chief. He was previously Roll Call’s deputy editor, senior writer, Capitol Hill editor, Heard on the Hill editor and House leadership editor. Prior to his time at Roll Call, he was editor of National Journal Daily and its predecessor publication, CongressDaily. He began his journalism career in Washington at National Journal’s environmental news daily, GreenWire, in 1998. A native of Arizona and a resident of Capitol Hill, he has also worked for the AmeriCorps program in West Virginia, and taught in Arizona and West Virginia.
John Donnelly

Senior Writer

Defense

John M. Donnelly has been with CQ Roll Call since 2004 and is now a senior writer covering national security at CQ.com and RollCall.com.
Donnelly has won numerous awards for investigative and exclusive reporting--from the National Press Club, the National Press Foundation, the Newsletter Publishers Foundation, the Military Reporters & Editors association and the Reserve Officers Association of the United States. In 2018 he won both the National Press Foundation’s Dirksen award for the best coverage of Congress and the National Press Club’s Dornheim award for unmatched reporting on defense.
For the decade prior to joining CQ, Donnelly worked as a reporter and ultimately editor at Defense Week, a newsletter that covered the Pentagon and defense industry. Donnelly has been published in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. He has appeared on or been cited on numerous broadcast outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio and C-SPAN.
Donnelly was twice elected president of Military Reporters & Editors, an organization representing defense reporters. He has held several leadership positions at the National Press Club, including chairman of its Board of Governors, and he is chairman emeritus of the club's Press Freedom Committee. He has also served as an officer on the Standing Committee of Correspondents of the U.S. Congress, which represents the news media on Capitol Hill.
Donnelly worked as a freelancer prior to beginning more than two decades of defense reporting in 1994. He studied English and Government at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and is a graduate of Gonzaga College High School on Capitol Hill.
David Lerman

Senior Writer

Budget and appropriations

David Lerman is a senior writer at CQ Roll Call. He writes the daily CQ Budget newsletter that gives readers a comprehensive look at all developments related to budget, appropriations and tax policy on Capitol Hill. Prior to joining CQ Roll Call, he served on the national security team at Bloomberg News, where he covered the Pentagon and State Department. He previously worked at the Tribune Company as Washington correspondent for the Newport News, Va. Daily Press. He is a native of Massachusetts and a resident of Logan Circle.
Niels Lesniewski

Chief Correspondent

White House, campaigns, and congressional procedure

Niels Lesniewski is the chief correspondent covering the White House & Congress for CQ Roll Call. Based at the White House since 2020, Niels spent a decade covering Senate leadership and policy on Capitol Hill for both CQ and Roll Call audiences, and he previously authored the CQ Senate newsletter. He's recognized as an expert on Senate procedure. Niels started at what is now CQ Roll Call in 2007, working for a legislative tracking service owned by The Economist Group. Born in Rhode Island and raised in Connecticut, he holds degrees in Theatre and Government from Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Peter Cohn

Managing Editor for News

Budget and Tax

Peter Cohn is CQ Roll Call’s budget and tax policy editor. For over two decades he’s been in the middle of covering the biggest legislative fights on Capitol Hill, starting his career right here at CQ before moving to National Journal. Pete took a hiatus from journalism to work in various roles helping both K Street and Wall Street understand the intersection of politics and policy and analyze the impact of federal legislation and regulation, before rejoining CQ Roll Call in 2017 — just in time for the biggest tax code overhaul since 1986.
Mary Ellen McIntire

Politics Writer

House and Senate campaigns

Mary Ellen Mcintire covers House and Senate campaigns for CQ Roll Call. She previously covered health care politics and policy for CQ Roll Call and Morning Consult. A New Hampshire native, she first moved to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University.
Sandhya Raman

Staff Writer

Health care

Sandhya Raman is a health policy staff writer for CQ Roll Call. Her focus includes policy through the lens of Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services, the White House and state governments. She covers women’s health, mental health and substance use, Medicaid, disadvantaged communities, and federal appropriations. She is also a regular panelist on KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ weekly health policy podcast. Prior to joining CQ Roll Call in 2017, she was a senior copy editor for Politico Pro and an associate editor at FierceMarkets. She is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Oberlin College.
Valerie Yurk

Reporter

Transportation and infrastructure

Valerie Yurk is a transportation and infrastructure reporter at CQ and Roll Call, where she covers issues in Congress, implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and more. Prior to that, Yurk was an environmental reporter at CQ Legal and a legislative reporter at Politico Pro. She began her career at E&E News as a reporting fellow, where she covered breaking science news, energy and environment legislation and climate change. Yurk graduated from George Washington University with degrees in journalism and political science in 2020.
Rachel Oswald

Reporter

Foreign affairs

Rachel Oswald is CQ Roll Call's foreign policy reporter, a position she has held since 2014. She previously spent five years covering nuclear weapons-related issues at National Journal's Global Security Newswire and got her journalism start at a small newspaper outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Rachel is a three-time grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and is also a past fellow of the National Endowment For Democracy, the International Reporting Project, and the Foreign Press Center of Japan. She has reported from Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Kazakhstan, among other places. In her free time, Rachel serves as the chairperson of the National Press Club's Press Freedom Committee.
Jim Saksa

Reporter

Legislative branch institutions

Jim Saksa is CQ Roll Call's features reporter, where he covers the politics and personalities that animate Capitol Hill. He previously was CQ's financial services reporter. He came to Washington from Philadelphia, where he was a reporter at WHYY, an NPR member station. Jim started his journalism career as an unpaid 30-year-old intern at the late, great Philadelphia City Paper. Before that, the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center graduate was a corporate attorney.
Caroline Coudriet

Staff Writer

Defense

Caroline Coudriet is an immigration reporter for CQ Roll Call. She covers immigration developments in Congress, the federal agencies and the courts. Previously, she was a committees reporter for CQ, where she covered House and Senate committee markups. Caroline is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she spent most of her time at the Daily Pennsylvanian, the independent student newspaper. She grew up outside Philadelphia and enjoys baking, running and cheering on Philly sports teams.

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