January 26th: Senator and John Ensign (R-NV) and I are urging our colleagues to act quickly to pass a new $20,000 refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers to help jumpstart our nation's ailing housing market. I, a member of the Budget Committee, and Senator Ensign, a member of the Finance Committee, are working closely this week with our colleagues to consider this bill as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or as a stand-alone measure (S. 312).

Nationally, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index, home prices have fallen more than 21% from their peak. Despite these lower prices and record-low interest rates, sales of existing homes are on the decline and housing starts are at a 50-year low. The need to act has grown more urgent.

We need to encourage prospective home buyers to get off the sidelines and help break our downward economic spiral. Whole communities are being affected by this housing crisis that is roiling our national, state and local economies; causing cutbacks in services; and hurting millions of hard-working Americans and their families at a time when they most need help. Most people want to claim their share of the American Dream of home ownership, but many are scared off by the foreclosure and credit horror stories they read about or see in their neighborhoods. This tax credit will give many Americans the confidence they need to take their first step into the housing market, which will help stabilize our communities and our economy.

January 23rd: For more than three decades, the U.S. Helsinki Commission has played an important role in furthering America's foreign policy objectives. I am honored to take the reigns as chairman at such a critical time in our nation's history

This week our nation has begun to write a new chapter in history. President Obama understands the urgent need to rejuvenate U.S. diplomacy to better advance America's priorities and rebuild our nation's position as an active and responsible member of the global community. I look forward to working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she leads the effort to restore our nation's credibility in the area of human rights, as we strive to define a 21st century relationship with Russia, and in so many other areas that will help make our nation and our world more secure. As Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, I also intend to focus a brighter spotlight on the plight of refugees and the need for transparency in resource extraction and commerce.

January 22nd: George Mitchell is a man of integrity and a diplomat in the greatest sense. I was pleased to hear of his appointment as Special Envoy for the Middle East. Senator Mitchell has a distinguished and successful record of guiding parties with seemingly intractable positions to a place of dialogue and agreement. His re-engagement in the region promises to provide a calming and patient voice that can guide neighbors, through meaningful negotiations, back toward a path of peaceful co-existence through mutual recognition, mutual respect, free-flowing commerce, and respect for human rights.

I welcome the immediacy of this appointment, coming just days after President Obama was sworn into office, as a clear sign of renewed American engagement in a region essential to our national security and so desperately in need of peace and stability.

January 22nd: I commend President Obama for issuing his executive orders today to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and prohibiting the use of torture against detainees. President Obama is sending a clear message to the world that we are re-establishing the rule of law in the United States, and that we, as a nation, will abide by our international obligations.

As the Senate leader of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, no other concern has been raised with the United States by our colleagues in Europe as often - and in earnest - as the situation in Guantanamo. I look forward to working with the President's new interagency task force, along with our friends and allies, to develop a common coalition approach toward the detention and humane treatment of accused terrorists, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission. As a Congressman I voted against the Military Commissions Act, which set up the flawed system of tribunals in Guantanamo Bay that ultimately was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Today's executive orders also put the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and the Justice Department on the right course. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was disappointed that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey could not bring himself to say that waterboarding is torture. By comparison, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder, during his confirmation hearing, was unequivocal in his repudiation of waterboarding as a practice acceptable to the United States and the civilized world. Time and again, military witnesses have testified before Congress that torture is not an effective method for obtaining information, hurts our efforts to work with our allies, and puts our brave men and women in uniform in greater danger overseas.