The Carl Levin Center for Oversight and
Democracy at Wayne State University Law School will honor Senators Chuck
Grassley (R-IA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Todd Young (R-IN), and Ben Cardin (D-MD)
with the 2023 Carl Levin Award for Effectve Oversight for their bipartisan,
fact-based efforts over several years to investigate and improve the national
organ donation program. The senators will receive the award at a ceremony to be
held at the office of Senator Todd Young (185 Dirksen Senate Office Building)
on January 11, at 11 a.m.
The subject of their investigation was
the failure of a federal contractor, UNOS, to competently manage the Organ
Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) which is made up of some 57
Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) responsible for obtaining and
distributing organs to patients on the organ donation waiting list. UNOS has
been the lone contractor managing OPTN for 40 years and the results in too many
cases have been tragic. The senators found that organs were being discarded
before they could be used, and people were dying because they couldn’t get the
organs they needed. The investigation conducted by these four senators resulted
in several hearings and reports as well as legislation enacted in September of
last year that opens the management of OPTN to competition and dramatically
improves services.
According to the senators’ August 2020 report, “Experts estimate that, by reforming government regulations and holding OPOs accountable, 28,000 more organs could be transplanted each year. Experts also project that improvements to the OPTN could save the federal government and taxpayers up to $40 billion over the next decade, particularly through reductions in dialysis and treatment of End Stage Renal Disease which accounts for $36 billion in Medicare spending each year.”
“Starting in February 2020,” Jim Townsend, director of the Levin Center said, “these four senators dedicated their time and talents to identifying and then correcting the problems in our nation’s organ donation system, and they did this on a strictly bipartisan basis with a commitment to finding the facts. Too often the headlines focus on what’s not working in Congress, but this award highlights the effort by these four senators to use Congress’ power to conduct oversight for the benefit of the American people.”
Jennifer Erickson, Senior Fellow with the
Federation of American Scientists, noted, “These Senators have been dogged in
their pursuit of underlying facts, and highly effective in communicating their
findings to the public, all while avoiding the partisan rancor that has become
endemic in American politics.
The Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight was established by the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy to honor U.S. legislators who exercise exceptional leadership in conducting bipartisan, fact-based oversight. Previous winners of the award were: U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Richard Burr (R-NC); and two state legislators, Representative Weston Newton (R-S.C.) and Senator Sara Gelser Blouin (D-OR). The award is given in recognition of the commitment former Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) had to bipartisan, fact-based oversight during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate.
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While the Levin Center is affiliated with
Wayne State University Law School, its views do not present the institutional
views, if any, of Wayne State University or the Law School.
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