The long-haired brunette showed her assertiveness in the interview when she stopped waiting to answer questions and began posing queries to her colleagues.

“Well, I’m not the interviewer, but here’s a question,” she said, provoking laughter from the others. She wanted to know whether they felt — as she does — that the camaraderie Team Dutch nurtures in the office extends to the general atmosphere on the Hill.  

Bregman agreed emphatically. She said she knew no one before moving to Washington, but now has made many of her friends on the Hill, either through repeat run-ins in the bathroom or elevator or at the many evening receptions that take place.

The team spirit of Team Dutch extends to after-hour activities, too. They have met for happy hours in Baltimore, had their holiday party at Molino’s house and are trying to organize a movie night soon.

Team members also put on their green “Go Dutch” T-shirts to march in holiday parades with their boss.

Hermann, the newly promoted legislative correspondent and speechwriter, had another preoccupation last year aside from team-building. The 26-year-old’s boyfriend worked just a few doors down the Longworth hall in Rep. Betty Sutton’s (D-Ohio) office before taking a job at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Hermann may work one of the most team-oriented jobs in the office, regularly circulating her speech drafts to several of her colleagues, but she does not clue them in on her every move. Her admission of weekly lunch meetings with her boyfriend was evidence that not everything is public knowledge with Team Dutch.

“I didn’t know about that!” Molino and Bregman chirped.