Lee Hamilton (20 April 1931 - ) was born in Daytona Beach, Volusia County, Fla, in the United States. Currently he is the vice chair of the 9-11 Commission and currently serves on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council. Lee Hamilton graduated from DePauw University in 1952 where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and Indiana University law school in 1956. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for the next ten years.
Mr. Hamilton was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1965. He chaired many committees during his time in office, including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Joint Committee on Printing, and others. As chair of the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, Hamilton controversally chose not to investigate President Ronald Reagan or President George H. W. Bush, stating that he did not think it would be "good for the country" to put the public through another impeachment trial. He was one of the top choices for the running mate of Bill Clinton in the election of 1992. He remained in Congress until 1999.
After his tenure in Congress, Mr. Hamilton has served as a commissioner on the Hart-Rudman Commission, and was co-chair of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He sits on many advisory boards, including those to the CIA, the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and the United States Army. He is currently the president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and was appointed to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission.
A nine-mile stretch of I-265 and Indiana 265 in Floyd and Clark counties, part of Hamilton's former House district, was designated the "Lee H. Hamilton Highway" shortly after his retirement from the House in 1999. The moniker is largely symbolic, as locals generally do not refer to the road by that name, although the name is used frequently by the traffic reporter for the area's largest radio station, WHAS 840-AM in nearby Louisville, Kentucky.
Lee Hamilton is also the name of a famous electrical engineer and businessman, he has been the President of Freedom Scientific since July 2002.
On March 15, 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, organized by United States Institute of Peace, of which Hamilton is the Democratic co-chair, along with James Baker.
