Jay Newton-Small Wins Dirksen Congressional Reporting Award

jay_newtonJay Newton-Small has been chosen as winner of the National Press Foundation’s 2016 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress.

Newton-Small’s reporting on the women in the U.S. Senate and their ability to work around the Capitol’s gridlock was published in ELLE Magazine. Newton-Small is also a contributor to Time magazine.

The NPF judges said: “Jay Newton-Small’s story showed originality and reminded us that Congress, or this female subset, can actually get things done. In 2014, women senators produced and passed 75 percent of the legislation. How? The women senators have regular bipartisan dinners. They go to each other’s homes and visit each other’s states. Newton-Small’s reporting shows that personal relationships can help dissolve the rancor in Congress and break the gridlock.”

Newton-Small will receive the award at NPF’s annual journalism awards dinner on Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, D.C., along with other award winners. Learn more about the NPF dinner and awards here.

The NPF judges also gave an honorable mention to Politico, for a series of stories written under deadline pressure that reported, with prescience, on the John Boehner-Paul Ryan shakeup that rocked the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress was created in 1980 in honor of the late Republican senator from Illinois. The award is intended to recognize U.S.-based journalists whose work shows thoughtful appraisal and insight into the workings of the U.S. Congress and represents the highest standards of journalism. The list of past winners is here.

The National Press Foundation is an independent nonprofit that is run by and for journalists. NPF’s sole mission is to educate practicing journalists about today’s most pressing issues and critical toolbox training.

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