Susan Milligan is senior political writer at U.S. News & World Report. She has covered domestic and foreign politics for 35 years, from New York City Hall to the Albany statehouse, and from Eastern Europe and the Middle East to Congress and the White House. As a foreign correspondent for five years, Milligan covered the conflicts in the Balkans and later reported on the war in Iraq. Her reporting on lobbying and abuse of power on Capitol Hill earned her the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, and she won a Society of Professional Journalists award for commentary. As a resident fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, she led a study group on midterm elections. She was on a team of authors of the New York Times bestselling biography "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy" and was a contributor to the book "Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Congress." She has worked at States News Service, the New York Daily News and the Boston Globe and her writing as appeared in a wide range of magazines including the Central European Economic Review, Washingtonian, Rhode Island Monthly, Business Central Europe and Institutional Investor. She graduated with a degree in political science and journalism from the University at Albany. Follow her on Twitter or email her at smilligan@usnews.com.