Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy

SOA 2024 Symposium: "Legislators and Academics in Partnership"
2024-06-21 08:30 - 16:30 (America/Detroit) | Zoom Webinar
Last year, the State Oversight Academy’s symposium connected scholars who study state legislatures with practitioners who serve as elected state lawmakers or as legislative staff. This year, we will take the same concept a step further: Equipped with this scholarly research, how can practitioners put these facts into practice to improve oversight in state legislatures?
This virtual symposium will begin with last year’s popular practitioner and scholars in dialogue format followed by a roundtable, in which scholars and practitioners will discuss how to put research into practice! We invite scholars and practitioners to join us to collaborate on these issues and work together to enhance legislative oversight practices and research in the field.
Find out more & RSVP

User-Friendly Oversight: Improving User Experience with Government Programs While Fighting Fraud
2024-05-13 12:00 - 13:15 | Zoom Webinar
Join us for a conversation about government program design and the tension between maximizing user accessibility and ensuring program integrity and security. Special guests include: Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recording America; Michele Evermore, former deputy director of the Department of Labor Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization; Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General, U.S. Dept. of Justice, and Chair, Pandemic Response Accountability Committee; and James Kaufman, Alaska State Senator, who will discuss the challenges of facilitating access to government services and benefits while minimizing waste, fraud, and abuse.
RSVP HERE

User-Friendly Oversight: Using Oversight to Encourage, Not Hinder, User-Friendly Government Efforts in the Digital Age
2024-05-10 13:00 - 14:15 | Zoom Webinar
Join us as we explore the fundamental challenges of governance and legislative oversight in an increasingly digital world. Special guests are Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recording America, Representative Jeff Johnson from the South Carolina legislature, and Michael Brennan from Detroit’s own Civilla discussing their efforts to bring a user-centric approach to government programs and oversight.
RSVP HERE

On-Demand Webinar Release: Natural Disaster Spending Oversight
2024-04-22 | YouTube Release
How do states oversee the distribution of funds in the wake of a natural disaster? The Levin Center’s State Oversight Academy will discuss investigations following hurricanes in North Carolina, flooding in West Virginia, and wildfires in Hawaii, as well as research into the distribution of these funds. Look out for this fascinating roundtable released on Earth Day – April 22!
Watch on YouTube

For Wayne Law Students: Career Panel with former U.S. Representative Dennis Hertel
2024-03-19 12:15 - 13:15 | Law School Building # 2242
Join us on Tuesday, March 19 for the Levin Center’s Spring 2024 career panel. Former U.S. Representative and WSU Law School alum, Dennis Hertel, will discuss his career in public service.
The Levin Center will provide boxed lunches and our usual student coffee cart!

At 31, Dennis Hertel was elected to Congress by citizens of Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties in Michigan. Reelected five times serving 6 terms in the House of Representatives. On the House Armed Services Committee for 12 years he was Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Earlier he served as Chairman of the Oceanography, Great Lakes and Outer Continental Shelf Subcommittee for 6 years. Hertel was NATO Delegate, Michigan Whip and Vice Chair of the Democratic Study Group leaving Congress when reapportionment eliminated his district. Prior to Congress Hertel was elected in Detroit to serve 3 terms in the Michigan House of Representatives where he was Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. In addition to his current 30 year government relations practice in Washington for the last 14 years Hertel has been a Distinguished Professor at the United States National Defense University Center for Strategic Studies educating state and defense personnel from 28 nations about the U.S. Congress. He has given speeches and lectures to foreign government groups and universities throughout North America, Middle East ,Asia and Europe. Hertel serves on the boards of the Congressional Hunger Center, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust and the Former Members of Congress Association. He served as Vice-President of the National Environmental Policy Institute. He received a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School, and graduated from Eastern Michigan University.

American Bar Association: Taking the Next Step - Ensuring Trusted Elections and Civics for Michiganders
2024-03-15 13:00 - 16:30 | Wayne State Law School, 471 W Palmer St, Detroit, MI, 48202, United States
The American Bar Association Task Force for American Democracy is convening a gathering of community leaders in Michigan, Taking the Next Step: Ensuring Trusted Elections and Civics for Michiganders , on March 15, 2024, from 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm, at the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium at Wayne State University Law School (471 West Palmer, Detroit, MI 48202). The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy is honored to support the event and be a partner to the ABA’s Task Force.
Taking the Next Step is a gathering of a diverse and bipartisan group of Michigan community leaders from all walks of life. The goal of the program is to facilitate an open discussion amongst Michiganders on how elections are administered and how a proper understanding of civics impacts each of us. We are honored to have former Mayor Dennis Archer, former Supreme Court Justices Bridget McCormack and Kurtis Wilder, and State Bar President Daniel Quick serve as Co-Chairs of our Host Committee.
To RSVP, please email levincenter@wayne.edu.

Presentation of the 2023 Levin Center Award for Excellence in Oversight Research
2024-02-26 12:15 - 13:30 | Webinar
Join us on February 26, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. ET as Professor Jason MacDonald presents his award winning paper “The Rise and Fall of Congressional Oversight of the Bureaucracy: The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, 1969-2018.” Moderated by our current Levin Center Oversight Fellow, Professor Sean Theriault of the University of Texas at Austin, the presentation will be followed by discussion and Q&A from the audience.
RSVP HERE

Interview with Steve Drummond, Author of "The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win WWII"
2024-01-30 12:15 - 13:15 | YouTube Release
Join us for lunch sandwiches on January 30, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. at the Wayne State University Law School as we screen our interview with Steve Drummond, Author of “The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win WWII.”
The interview will be conducted by U.S. Senate Historian, Kate Scott.

RSVP FOR SCREENING or WATCH ALONG ON YOUTUBE

Book Synopsis:
The story of how a little-known junior senator fought wartime corruption and, in the process, set himself up to become vice president and ultimately President Harry Truman.
Months before Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that the United States was on the verge of entering another world war for which it was dangerously ill-prepared. The urgent times demanded a transformation of the economy, with the government bankrolling the unfathomably expensive task of enlisting millions of citizens while also producing the equipment necessary to successfully fight—all of which opened up opportunities for graft, fraud and corruption.
In The Watchdog, Steve Drummond draws the reader into the fast-paced story of how Harry Truman, still a newcomer to Washington politics, cobbled together a bipartisan team of men and women that took on powerful corporate entities and the Pentagon, placing Truman in the national spotlight and paving his path to the White House.
Drawing on the largely unexamined records of the Truman Committee as well as oral histories, personal letters, newspaper archives and interviews, Steve Drummond—an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR—brings the colorful characters and intrigue of the committee’s work to life. The Watchdog provides readers with a window to a time that was far from perfect but where it was possible to root out corruption and hold those responsible to account. It shows us what can be possible if politicians are governed by the principles of their office rather than self-interest.

About the Author:
Steve Drummond is a journalist at NPR in Washington, where he has been a senior editor for more than two decades. He has been a reporter with newspapers in Florida and the Associated Press in Michigan and has written for many publications, including the St. Petersburg Times, the Detroit News, the New York Times, Education Week and Teacher Magazine. He lives in Maryland, where he also teaches journalism at the University of Maryland.

Interview with U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
2023-02-27 16:00 - 17:00 | Live Stream
The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy is honored to host an interview with U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on his long and distinguished career in Congress and the important oversight work he has led culminating in his recent chairmanship of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jim Townsend, director of the Levin Center, will conduct the interview.

Watch live on our YouTube channel!
