The public perception of his civil rights advancement has endured. A champion of the civil rights movement in the United States, he publicly criticized J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was at the time considered political suicide as Hoover often spied and attempted to smear his opponents. Muskie also was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and developed the reform of lobbying. His time as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980 include the formation of the United States budget process. Because of this, he is known as the "father of the federal budget process". David Broder of "The Washington Post", noted that Muskie's leadership of the Senate's intergovernmental relations subcommittee was, in part, responsible for countering Richard Nixon's "Imperial Presidency" and advancing "New Federalism".