Mary Kevin Niland

{{Short description|American political clerk}}

{{primary sources|date=May 2020}}

Mary Kevin Niland is a former Reading Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, a face familiar to viewers of C-SPAN,{{Cite web |title=Mary Kevin Niland :C-SPAN.org |url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?marykevinniland |website=www.c-span.org |publisher=C-SPAN |location=United States |access-date=2020-05-18}} the network which covers House proceedings.{{Cite web |title=Final Report and Summary of Activities: Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007, U.S. House of Representatives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bd6N0lFQKrwC&dq=Mary%2520Kevin%2520Niland&pg=PA13 |last=August 2, 2007 |first=United States Congress House Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of |date=2008 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=U.S. |language=en |access-date=2020-05-18}} The reading clerk reads bills, motions, and other papers before the House and keeps track of changes to legislation made on the floor.

During the vote for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives at the beginning of each Congress (or when the electronic voting system fails), the Reading Clerk calls the roll of members for voting viva voce.

Niland became Democratic clerk in 1998 at the recommendation of then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. She replaced Meg Goetz. Niland served until 2008, when she became Deputy Chief of Legislative Operations in the Office of the Clerk. Her successor as Reading Clerk was Jaime Zapata.

Niland's Republican counterpart was Susan Cole.