Fredreka Schouten is a CNN Politics national political writer, where she focuses on money in politics.

Before joining CNN, Schouten worked at USA TODAY, where she spent a dozen years writing about campaign-finance issues, lobbying and ethics. While there, she tracked the rise of unlimited money in federal politics and the ethics issues that confronted the Trump administration.

Schouten has covered an array of topics in her Washington career, ranging from environmental issues and gambling policy as a correspondent for Western newspapers in the Gannett chain to writing about the passage and implementation of President George W. Bush's signature education law, the No Child Left Behind Act, as national education correspondent for Gannett News Service. She also has served as a city editor and bureau chief at Gannett newspapers.

Schouten got her start in journalism at The Virgin Islands Daily News, her hometown newspaper. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of the Virgin Islands.