More than 90 people attended the Levin Center at Wayne Law's symposium in Detroit, “Current Issues in Immigration Law: Detention, ‘Sanctuary Cities,’ and the ‘Travel Ban.’” The event included a special panel on “Iraqi Deportations in Detroit: Community Perspectives and Responses.” Watch the full conference here.

After a competitive selection process, the Levin Center has doubled placement opportunities and will be sending four interns to Capitol Hill this summer with congressional committees doing oversight work. The interns and their placements are: Marie Bonnici, Senate Banking Committee; Marisa Hamel, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Shelbie Rose, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; Marilyn Yousif, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The Levin Center at Wayne Law manages a congressional oversight scholars listserv to foster communication among academics in the field. The list has grown to more than 100 participants hailing from colleges and universities around the nation. Join the conversation.

The Levin Center at Wayne Law is accepting nominations for the inaugural Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight, in honor of former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin’s legacy as a champion for fact-based, bipartisan legislative oversight investigations. The award celebrates a current or former U.S. legislator at any level of government who has led or played a significant role in a bipartisan oversight investigation. 

In November, a bipartisan panel of experts gathered at Wayne Law for a discussion on the GOP tax reform proposals. Panelists were Daniel M. Houlf, general tax counsel, General Motors Company; Former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin; and Wayne Law Distinguished Professor Alan S. Schenk.

Elise Bean, Washington co-director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, has been recognized as a leader on tax justice and is one of five women from around the world celebrated by Global Witness for standing up for transparency and accountability in their fields.The recognition was part of International Women’s Day on March 8.

As of February, The Levin Center at Wayne Law, in partnership with the Project on Government Oversight and The Lugar Center, has hosted seven Congressional Oversight Boot Camps, training more than 140 congressional staff members on the art and practice of bipartisan oversight. Earlier this year, the organizations launched a new web section dedicated to the boot camps.

Stay tuned for details on the Levin Center at Wayne Law's June conference in Washington, D.C. in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Inspector General Act. The event will highlight the role of inspectors general in combatting waste, fraud and abuse, and in assisting Congress with its oversight duties.

This fall in Boston, Elise Bean, Washington co-director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, will join a panel of leading scholars at the annual American Political Science Association conference to discuss congressional oversight. The event attracts more than 6,000 attendees. The panelists will include professors from Harvard, Princeton, University of Michigan, University of Southern California and Yale.

Levin writes op-eds, calls for bipartisanship

Former U.S. Sen Carl Levin, chair of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, wrote Congress is falling short on its oversight duties, for the Detroit Free Press; and Congress needs bipartisanship to fully investigate Russian influence, for The Hill.