Policy Programs

Research . Reflect . Report

The chief thrust of the Policy Programs section of the Miller Center is the convening of national commissions. In 2007, the Center empanelled the National War Powers Commission, co-chaired by James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher, to examine and make lasting recommendations concerning the war powers of the President and Congress, a subject of perennial importance.

The Miller Center has conducted nine national commissions during the past quarter century: Presidential Press Conferences (1981), the Presidential Nominating Process (1982), Presidential Transitions and Foreign Policy (1986), Presidential Disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1988), the Presidency and Science Advising (1989), Choosing and Using Vice Presidents (1992), the Selection of Federal Judges (1996), the Separation of Powers (1998), and Federal Election Reform (2001).

Each commission has been co-chaired by prominent figures from the two major parties, including Secretaries of State William Rogers and Cyrus Vance, Senators Howard Baker, Birch Bayh, Charles Mathias, Edmund Muskie, and Adlai Stevenson III, Congressman Robert Michel, Attorneys General Griffin Bell, Herbert Brownell, and Nicholas Katzenbach, Virginia Governor Linwood Holton, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, Cornell President Dale Corson, White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

The report of each of the Miller Center's national commissions has received scrutiny by the White House and others. For example, Bill Clinton's campaign staff reviewed the report on vice presidents before he broke with traditional wisdom and chose Al Gore as his running mate. George H. W. Bush not only made extensive use of the report on Presidential Transitions and Foreign Policy, but also held a meeting soon after his election to discuss presidential disability and the procedures of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, and additionally chose a science advisor who had participated in the Miller Center's commission on science advising. Ronald Reagan's press secretary James Brady referred to the report on Presidential Press Conferences at Reagan's opening press conference. George W. Bush commended the report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform in a Rose Garden ceremony, and the report's recommendations in large measure have been adopted into law. These examples and others attest to the expertise, practical wisdom, and influence of the Miller Center's national commissions.

• National War Powers Commission


• Prior National Commissions
  • Federal Election Reform (2001)
  • The Separation of Powers (1998)
  • The Selection of Federal Judges (1996)
  • Choosing and Using Vice Presidents (1992)
  • The Presidency and Science Advising (1989)
  • Presidential Disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1988)
  • Presidential Transitions and Foreign Policy (1986)
  • The Presidential Nominating Process (1982)
  • Presidential Press Conferences (1981)