After the election, he returned to the Senate where he gave the 1976 State of the Union Response. Muskie served as first chairman of the new Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980 where he established the United States budget process. Upon his retirement from the Senate, Carter nominated him to serve as the 58th U.S. Secretary of State; he was confirmed to take office by a margin of 94–2. Assuming the office in the middle of a series of violent international conflicts, his most notable success as secretary came when his department negotiated the release of 52 Americans concluding the Iran hostage crisis. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Carter in 1981 and has been honored with a public holiday in Maine since 1987.