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July 9, 2011
Lee Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson Center
George Washington established the first President Advisory Commission in 1796. Its purpose was to advise the government on its response to the Whiskey Rebellion. By the twentieth century advisory commissions had become an established instrument of government inquiry. The twentieth century also witnessed a broadening of the subject matter these commissions reviewed. And in the first few years the twenty-first century commissions have already been convened to examine traumatic national events like 9/11 and the Iraq War. Lee Hamilton explains what makes commissions work and what their future use might be.