Jim Townsend, Director of the Levin Center, was interviewed by the Detroit News to mark the Center’s 10-year anniversary. You can find the full interview by clicking below!
Q&A: Jim Townsend, Levin Center director, on the need for bipartisan oversight in Congress
by Melissa Burke — March 22, 2025
Michigan’s late U.S. Sen. Carl Levin was known for leading dozens of congressional investigations in Washington, probing everything from abusive credit card practices to the Enron scandal.
The Detroit Democrat’s bipartisan investigations in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis looked at the role of troubled banks, credit rating agencies and U.S. regulatory agencies, and the findings helped to shape the major financial reform legislation known as Dodd-Frank. Levin, who chaired the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, retired from the Senate in 2015 and died in 2021.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School, which was established in part to carry on Levin’s legislative oversight legacy.
