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Learning by Hearings:

A Legislative Oversight Experience

2025-2026

The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy

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What is Legislative Oversight?

Legislatures ask questions of government agencies, private entities, and the public for information about a particular issue or problem

Goal: find out how government is performing or should perform

Examples: Mark Zuckerberg hearing, FTX collapse, Enron, January 6th Committee, 9/11 Commission, Big Tobacco
Check out the Levin Center’s “Portraits in Oversight”

The US Congress and state legislatures conduct investigations

Tools: committees, commissions, agencies, inspectors general, enforcement programs
Opportunity for collaboration across different political views, backgrounds,

and perspectives

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What is legislative oversight?

The conversation about the state of our country and society. Good government is not possible without good oversight. Legislatures are an essential part of the ever-evolving conversation about the state of our country and society. Powers like subpoena make it so legislatures are uniquely positioned to find facts and then share results with everyone. Legislative investigations can be inspired by investigative journalism, scholarly research, or even a constituent inquiry.
The goal is to find out how government is performing. Where are things going great? Where can things be improved?
Examples of famous legislative investigative hearings include the Mark Zuckerberg hearing on Facebook, the January 6th Committee, Watergate, the 9/11 Commission, and Big Tobacco.
Read more on the Levin Center’s website by visiting their Portraits in Oversight at: https://www.levin-center.org/oversightscholars/portraits/
Congress and state legislatures use committees and lots of other tools to conduct oversight. In Learning by Hearings, the focus is on the role of committees.

lide 5: What is legislative oversight?

An oversight investigation is not a prosecution. For students with experience with mock trial programs, Learning by Hearings can be a great experience but with different goals. A legislative hearing is not a prosecution. No one is going to prison or receiving a fine as a direct result of an oversight investigation. In the real world, the facts raised by an investigation could in turn be picked up by prosecutors, but the goal of the committee members for Learning by Hearings is to find facts as part of a legislative inquiry. What happened, what did not happen, and what, if any, action should be taken next by the committee or by the government in response to the facts?

Society is full of contentious topics, and oversight gifts us a framework in which we can approach challenging topics to learn more. Encourage the students to think about things like seat belts and tobacco use, and how a congressional investigation into both caused dramatic changes because of the facts earned from each inquiry. Remind students that Learning by Hearings is merely a roleplay exercise and that you are all learning together.

Diverse backgrounds and perspectives are an essential aspect of a great legislative investigation. Without people of different backgrounds, one is trying to conduct oversight in an echo chamber full of people with similar viewpoints which blinds one to alternative viewpoints.

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What is Learning by Hearings?

An opportunity to learn about how legislatures conduct investigations/hold hearings

Students role-play as elected officials to find facts and solve problems by working together
A scenario designed by oversight experts at the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy (the scenario is not real, but is built on many contemporary issues, crises, and problems that governments face)
Volunteer witnesses answer questions from students role-playing as elected officials
A chance for students to develop a deeper understanding of legislative oversight and its importance

"It is the proper duty of a representative body to look diligently into every affairs of government and to talk much about what it sees. It is meant to be the eyes and the voice, and to embody the wisdom and will of its constituents."

Woodrow Wilson

What is Learning by Hearings?

An opportunity to learn about how legislatures conduct investigations and hold hearings. State legislatures and the U.S. Congress hold hearings on all sorts of topics, and now you can roleplay this essential legislative process.
Students roleplay as elected officials and find facts, solve problems by working together. The scenario is multidimensional and has lots of facts to uncover. For success, the committee must work as a team.
A scenario designed by oversight experts at the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy. They conduct workshops on oversight in DC and in state legislatures across the country, and have a wealth of research on oversight available on their website, www.levin-center.org.
Volunteer witnesses answer questions from students roleplaying as elected officials. In this exercise, you will be asking questions to volunteer witnesses roleplaying as various experts to help find the facts.
Develop a deeper understanding of legislative oversight and its importance.

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The Committee Chair

Primary Responsibility: run an effective committee

Be respectful and step in if other Committee Members are not acting with decorum

Give Witnesses instructions and time for an opening statement
Share questioning time equally among Committee Members
Make sure a record is being kept of answers and facts
Remember the order of Witnesses - Don't call up the wrong person!
Keep track of time, and do not be afraid to interrupt Committee Members or Witnesses in case of lengthy testimony or questions

A Witness does not need to use the full time allotted if Committee Members feel that they have exhausted their questions

At the end of each hearing, invite the Witnesses to share their real names and professions

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The primary responsibility of the Committee Chair is to run an effective committee. Each witness should have time for an opening statement, and a chance to introduce themselves and their real identities at the conclusion of their testimony.
When sharing questioning time, work with the committee to know who wants to ask what question and to what witness. Remember, you only have 60-90 minutes each hearing, so the committee only has 20-30 minutes with each witness.
Ask the chair to assign a recordkeeper for the committee so someone is keeping track of answers and facts. This should be someone familiar with technology to share a file of the hearing notes.
In the action of hearing, a common mistake is to call up the wrong witness. Keep a piece of paper handy so everyone knows the order of witnesses.
Be respectful, but urgent. It is ok to interrupt lengthy testimony or questions for the sake of keeping the committee on time and on task.

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The Committee Members

Primary Responsibility: work together with fellow Committee Members to find the facts inside the scenario

Help to develop the hearing plan with to make sure the Committee covers all topics and is not repeating questions

This includes deciding on the order of the Witnesses and the main Investigation Question

Develop specific expertise within the scenario

Read the scenario and Witness Summaries, complete additional research as needed

Plan and ask concise, informative questions to help keep the Committee on time and on task

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The Press

Primary Responsibility: write a final news article about the legislative investigation and press conference

Take notes throughout the hearings on interesting witness testimony and answers

You may ask to speak with Witnesses and Committee Members, but they may refuse

Ask questions in the Press Conference to the Committee Chair

Faithfully report on what happened in these two hearings, and what recommendations the committee might put forward because of the facts learned

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See - Think - Wonder

If you were a legislator and given this graph, what are some things that you SEE when you first look at it?

What do you THINK about the graph and the information that is presented?

What do you WONDER about the information in this graph? What questions do you have?

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The 2026 Scenario

Big-box stores are using a tax loophole called the "dark store" theory. In essence, they are having their property taxes reassessed so that busy, open thriving stores pay the same amount in property taxes as empty abandoned ones. This leads to communities losing a lot of tax revenue they thought they could rely on. Tax revenue pays for essential services, so lost tax dollars lead to cuts in thighs like fire, police, schools, and libraries.

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The 2026 Witnesses

If this issue happened in your community - who would you want to talk to get more information and discover the facts of the case?

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The 2026 Witnesses

Your Potential Witnesses Are:

Member of the Michigan Tax Tribunal
Michigan Treasurer, Department of the Treasury
Representative from the Council of State Governments
Current or Former Michigan Legislator who has worked on this reform
Industry Consultant and Retail Expert
Property Tax Assessor
Concerned community representatives
Local Elected Official from Ile de Grasse
CEO of BulkBuy

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Next Steps

If this sounds like a good fit, be sure to mark “Legislative Oversight” as one of your preferences

Look for communication from MI YiG about your placement and scenario information.

Questions?

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LbH.LevinCenter@wayne.edu