Lori Montgomery covers U.S. economic policy and the federal budget, focusing on efforts to tame the national debt. She has written extensively about every major piece of legislation to pass Congress since 2008, including the TARP bank bailout, the Obama stimulus package and the Democratic overhaul of the health care system. A former foreign correspondent who covered the emerging economies of Central Europe and the war over Kosovo in the late 1990s, Montgomery joined the Post in 2000 to report on local government and politics. A native of Western Pennsylvania, she has also worked for newspapers in Michigan, Texas and Idaho.