Representative Weston J. Newton, Republican Chair of the South Carolina House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Oversight, is the first recipient of the Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight. Senator Levin presented the award to Mr. Newton as part of the luncheon program at the Oversight Summit, held in Washington, D.C., on November 16, 2018.  The Levin Center was one of several organizational sponsors of the Oversight Summit, an all-day conference on how to strengthen Congressional oversight.  Mr. Newton was given the award for his commitment to bipartisanship, fact-finding, and transparency in the conduct of oversight.  Following his acceptance of the award, Mr. Newton sat down with Senator Levin for a conversation about the meaning and value of bipartisanship and fact-finding in legislative oversight.  The ceremony and ensuing conversation can be viewed on C-SPAN.  

Levin Center Pilots Model Oversight Program with Michigan High School Students

On February 28 through March 2, 2019 the Levin Center, in collaboration with the YMCA's Michigan Youth in Government conference, piloted a model oversight program for high school students. The program presented students with a mock environmental disaster in the Great Lakes and asked them to conduct fact-based, bipartisan oversight hearings to get to the bottom of what happened, who was responsible, and how the state could provide solutions to avoid a similar situation in the future. The program was well-received and students from across the state were enthusiastic about learning and implementing good model governance.  Based on the positive response we received this year, we expect this program to continue in the future.  Additionally, the Levin Center's Elise Bean provided keynote remarks to the conference's over 650 attendees on Saturday, March 2.

Levin Center Presents Careers in Government Panel for Wayne Law Students

In the first of a series on careers in government, the Levin Center presented a panel of attorneys who have had a variety of experiences in government employment.  Speaking to a crowded room of Wayne Law students were Ralph White and Helen Desaulniers, Managing Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law and Managing Associate General Counsel, respectively, at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO); Jim Townsend, former Representative, 26th District, Michigan House of Representatives;  and our own Linda Gustitus, former Chief of Staff and Subcommittee Staff Director for Senator Carl Levin.  The panelists spoke about the professional and personal satisfaction new attorneys can find in government work.  Future panels will include persons working in the offices of agency general counsels, inspectors general, procurement, Congressional support services, and corporate government relations. 

The Levin Center has selected six Wayne Law students to participate in our summer legal internship program, working on Congressional committees and subcommittees that conduct oversight.  Those selected are currently in the process of interviewing with their assigned committees, and once approved, will be making arrangements for a 10-12 week internship beginning in early May after exams.  This is the fourth year of the legal internship program, and this year will be the largest group.  To date, eight Wayne Law students have participated in the internships on Capitol Hill. 

Master Classes Help Boot Camp Graduates Master Oversight

In March and December 2018, the Levin Center and POGO jointly sponsored two master classes on oversight, open only to boot camp graduates.  The March class was a deep dive into cybersecurity issues – how to conduct oversight, identify problems, and produce reforms.  About 15 participants from both parties and houses attended.  The December class provided a 2.5-hour seminar with four bipartisan experts on how to design effective document requests.  It was attended by 22 House and Senate staffers from both parties.  Each master class provided high-level, detailed advice to a sophisticated and engaged audience.  More master classes are planned for 2019.

House and Senate committee clerks, who provide administrative support for oversight investigations and hearings, can play an important role in encouraging bipartisan, fact-based investigations.  Their jobs involve managing documents, subpoenas, witnesses, testimony, and the press, yet they have no training program on how to do this important work.  So in January 2019, the Levin Center sponsored a training workshop for committee and subcommittee clerks in the John Dingell Hearing Room of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.  Forty staffers from both houses and both parties attended the 2-hour session.  The workshop was led by our Washington Co-Director, Elise Bean, and three former or current chief clerks with years of experience doing oversight investigations in the House or Senate.  The workshop distributed a six-page hand-out, developed by the Center with input from multiple clerks, offering valuable tips on how to manage an oversight investigation.  The Levin Center plans to make this workshop an annual program. 

Oversight Message for Foreign Fellows

Continuing with our work internationally, Elise Bean, our Washington Co-Director, made a 90-minute presentation in January on Congressional oversight at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).  The NED is a nonprofit foundation “dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.”  The audience was a NED Fellowship Program that hosts leading democracy activists, journalists, and scholars from a range of countries, including Burma, Georgia, Ghana, Iran, the Philippines, and Ukraine.  The presentation featured bipartisan, fact-based inquiries conducted by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, discussing them both as a model for what other countries can do in the oversight field and as an example of how the U.S. Congress sometimes addresses issues outside its borders.  Discussing legislative oversight with the NED Fellows helps fulfill the Levin Center’s mission to strengthen oversight efforts at the international level.

On Feb. 21-22, 2019, the Levin Center, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), and Lugar Center held their ninth joint Congressional Oversight Boot Camp.  Like its predecessors, the boot camp provided a successful, two-day, intensive workshop to educate Congressional staff on how to conduct bipartisan, fact-based, in-depth investigations.  A total of 26 staffers attended.  Together, the oversight boot camps have now trained 194 staffers from both parties and houses of Congress.

On Friday, March 22, 2019, the Levin Center at Wayne Law, together with The Journal of Law in Society, will host a symposium entitled "Gerrymandering: The Power of Boundaries" with the intention of fostering civil discourse on this matter of rapidly evolving public policy.  Michigan's newly elected Secretary of State and former Wayne Law Dean Jocelyn Benson will provide keynote remarks.  Jocelyn Benson is Michigan’s 43rd secretary of state. A graduate of Harvard Law School and an expert on civil rights law and election law, she is the author of State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. As dean of Wayne State University Law School, she was the youngest woman in U.S. history to lead a top-100, accredited law school.  She is also the vice chair of the Advisory Board for the Levin Center.  

The Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School is pleased to announce that it is seeking submissions for the newly established Levin Center Award for Excellence in Oversight Research to promote, acknowledge and heighten the visibility of scholarly papers that examine important oversight issues at the national, state, tribal, local or international levels and that contribute to efforts to improve public policy.  The award carries a cash prize of $1,000 and an invitation to present the paper at Wayne Law. For the inaugural award, the deadline for submission of papers is June 1, 2019.

The Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School is pleased to announce it is seeking nominations for the second annual Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight to be given to one or more U.S. legislators at the national, state, or local level who have demonstrated an extraordinary effort to conduct fact-based, bipartisan oversight.  

If you're interested in receiving more information about supporting the Levin Center, email us at levincenter@wayne.edu.