Ed Markey

Ed Markey

Edward J. Markey is a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts.

He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 5th district of Massachusetts.

Background

Ed Markey was born in Malden, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1946. He attended Boston College (B.A., 1968) and Boston College Law School (J.D., 1972). He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and was elected to the Massachusetts State House where he served two terms representing Malden and Melrose. He is married to Dr. Susan Blumenthal.

Congress

Representative Edward J. Markey, a national leader on energy and the environment, is the Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee. He has served on the Committee since his election to the House of Representatives in 1976. In addition to being a steward of our public lands, national parks, and oceans, Rep. Markey has fought to create new jobs in American clean energy. He also consistently served as consumer champion against rising gas prices and foreign oil.

From 2007 to 2010, at the direction of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Markey served as Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The Select Committee has held 80 hearings and briefings and contributed to the advancement of smarter energy and climate policies, including the first increase in fuel economy standards in three decades, which Rep. Markey authored.

During the 111th Congress, Rep. Markey also chaired the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Perhaps the most powerful Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, it had unprecedented jurisdiction over national energy and environmental policy. As Chairman, Markey co-authored the landmark Waxman-Markey "American Clean Energy and Security Act," which was approved by the House of Representatives in June 2009.

Reflecting his commitment to maintaining the quality of life and economic opportunity in New England and across America. Gene Karpinski, the President of the League of Conservation Voters of the United States, has said “there is no greater environmental champion in Congress than Ed Markey as we fight to head off the looming catastrophe of climate change,” and Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists has said that Rep. Markey “is part of an exciting, game-changing leadership in the Congress on climate and energy.” President Obama has also noted that "the House of Representatives has already passed historic legislation" on energy and environmental issues "due in large part to the efforts of Massachusetts' own Ed Markey" noting in a speech in Boston that Markey “deserves a big round of applause” for his leadership in drafting the Waxman-Markey bill.

Security

From 2003 to 2009, Rep. Markey also served as a senior member of The House Homeland Security Committee. In that capacity, he focused on closing gaps in our homeland defenses, particularly in the areas of nuclear, aviation, rail, liquefied natural gas and chemical security. National Journal named Rep. Markey to its “Homeland Security 100,” a list of the top leaders influencing homeland security policy, identifying him as “a tenacious watchdog, relentlessly prodding the Bush administration to crack down on what he sees as critical gaps in the nation’s security.”

2025 March to Save Our Healthcare

Senators Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Ron Wyden. Reps Rashida Tlaib, Nancy Pelosi, Pramila Jayapal.

JStreet PAC endorsement

In 2024 JStreet PAC endorsed Ed Markey.

Markeyverse

A group of teen activists that supported Ed Markey. They include Calla Walsh, who described "Markeyverse" in October, 2020:

The "Markeyverse" is basically an online universe of [over 100] stan accounts or niche accounts in support of Ed Markey… basically they tweet out in support of Ed, but they also turn all of their interactions online into shifting people for phone banks, dropping donation links on other people’s posts, really utilizing the digital organizing sphere to get kids in by having these fun accounts … the "Wuniverse" [in support of Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu] was created very organically in that a lot of Markey accounts wanted to shift their efforts towards supporting another progressive candidate in Massachusetts.

The "Markeyverse" uses their political power to pressure Ed Markey on progressive issues.

Okonawa connection

In early March 2023 Denny Tamaki, the recently re-elected Governor of Okinawa, traveled to DC for a weeklong trip to lobby lawmakers and officials to reduce the disproportionate burden of US military bases in Okinawa, which hosts over 70% of US military presence in Japan. The Governor met with leading US officials including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers and aides, as well as government officials, diplomats, and academics, to discuss the critical issues pertaining to the US bases and stress the need for diplomacy to ease tensions with China.

Tamaki told reporters he met with AOC for over 30 minutes to brief the Congresswoman on the local opposition against the construction of a new US base at Henoko. He explained the US and Japanese governments are ignoring the will of Okinawans through this construction, as well as noting that toxic PFAS chemical contamination of soil and water from the bases are worsening and require immediate studies by the US government. During the meeting, AOC indicated concern over these issues and expressed willingness to work together on a solution, including through potential legislation. She told the Okinawa Times that her office will review the contents of the meeting and consider what action is necessary.

During last week’s visit, Governor Tamaki also met with Senator Todd Young (R-IN) and Representative Jill Tokuda (D-HI), as well as aides of Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), and the Senate Armed Services Committee. Other meetings including with State Department officials, the Japanese Ambassador, and DC think tank experts, sought to emphasize the need for constructive dialogue. A panel discussion co-hosted by the Quincy Institute, Okinawa Prefectural Government, and George Washington University, with Tamaki, professor Mike Mochizuki, and senior research fellow Michael Swaine, stressed the importance of addressing the issues with the bases and for the US to engage diplomatically in the Asia-Pacific, instead of escalating its already high military presence.

As US tensions with China continue to rise, Governor Tamaki asked lawmakers “to tell the US government to conduct diplomacy peacefully and relieve tensions to not bring war to Okinawa. With increased Japanese military spending, expanded US-Japanese joint military drills, and plans from Tokyo to station surface-to-air missiles in Okinawa, Tamaki instead brought to the US a message of diplomacy, urging dialogue over military buildup on the issue with Taiwan.

The Governor’s visit follows growing opposition to the US bases in Okinawa, including from organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), as well as DSA state and local elected officials in the US who signed a recent letter outlining the issues and opposition to the bases.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Progressive Change Campaign Committee endorsed Ed Markey in 2022.

THRIVE Resolution

September 10, 2020 Contact: Kenny Palmer | press@indivisible.org

Washington, DC — Indivisible, along with a coalition of grassroots groups, labor unions, Black, Brown and Indigenous leaders from across the nation, and members of Congress, is excited to announce the introduction of a bold plan for economic renewal known as the THRIVE Agenda. THRIVE -- Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in Vibrant Economy -- will be introduced tomorrow in Congress by Senators Chuck Schumer, Ed Markey, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Deb Haaland, Debbie Dingell, Donald McEachin, Sheila Jackson Lee, Raul Grijalva, Rosa DeLauro, Brendan Boyle, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna.

"The THRIVE Agenda is the bold new vision we need to create millions of good jobs, repair and revive our economy, and address the overlapping crises of mass unemployment, racial injustice, public health, and climate change,” said Mary Small, Legislative Director for Indivisible. “It is critical that any recovery package offered by Congress rise to meet the level of crisis, rather than inexcusably shrink to the scope of political convenience."

Indivisible will be mobilizing its national network of thousands of groups and millions of individual activists to call their lawmakers to demand their support for the THRIVE Resolution.

Built on eight pillars -- from creating millions of union jobs while averting climate catastrophe to investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities -- THRIVE’s top priorities are the families and communities who share the dream of a good life: free from worry about meeting basic needs, with reliable and fulfilling work, and a dignified and healthy standard of living.

85 members of Congress have already endorsed the THRIVE Resolution as original cosponsors, and a new poll finds strong majority support for THRIVE nationwide.

Long term political consequences of the Hughes campaign

Opposing Ted Kennedy in the 1962 Massachusetts Democratic Primary was Edward McCormack, nephew of House Speaker John McCormack; Kennedy's Republican opponent was Yankee scion George Cabot Lodge; and on the left was Independent peace candidate Harvard Prof. H. Stuart Hughes, chair of the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy.

Jerome Grossman was Hughes' Campaign Manager and Chester Hartman was the organizer of the massive signature drive required to place Hughes on the ballot. According to Grossman;

Hughes needed 72,000 signatures, a purposely prohibitive number in that era of McCarthyism and nobody in fact had tried to reach it since the law had first been passed.

In this talented field, Hughes polled 50,013 votes, 2.3% of the votes cast. However, we collected a startling 149,000 signatures in ten weeks for a "peace candidate." The Cuban Missile Crisis arrived in October just before the election. With the integrity that was his hallmark, Hughes went against the popular hysteria: he accused President Kennedy of acting over hastily in imposing the blockade of Cuba, of bypassing the United Nations, and unnecessarily stirring up an atmosphere of national emergency. His position cost Hughes thousands of votes.

In the process we built a town-by-town organization all over the state, a structure that remains in place today. A clear result has been the election over recent decades of so many progressive voices to the state's first-rate Congressional delegation, including Michael Harrington, Father Robert Drinan, Gerry Studds, Jim McGovern, Barney Frank, Ed Markey, John Tierney, Michael Capuano and John Kerry.

Grossman relationship

The Vietnam War had personal as well as political consequences for Steve Grossman. At Harvard he signed an anti-war petition, despite the warnings of career-conscious classmates who said it would harm his chances to get a job. Later, he accelerated his business-school program and joined the US Army Reserves, which fulfilled his military obligations. That's where he met Ed Markey, a young man from Malden. "We were always talking about politics," Markey remembers. When Markey announced that he was running for a congressional seat in 1976, Grossman called to offer his family's support.

The Chile letter

On August 1 1979 Thirty-five U.S. Congressmen signed a letterto President Jimmy Carter demanding that private bank loans to Chile be barred unless the Chilean government chose to extradite three military officials, including the former director of the Chilean intelligence service. The three had been indicted for complicity in the assassination of marxist Unidad Popular government member and KGB agent Orlando Letelier and the killing of Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) staffer Ronni Moffitt in 1976.

In May 1978 the Chief Justice of the Chilean Supreme Court rejected the U.S. request for extradition.

Chief sponsor of the letter was Rep. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who was joined by Congressmen John Burton (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI), Robert Kastenmeier (D-WI), Ron Dellums (D-CA), Berkley Bedell (D-IA), Richard Ottinger (D-NY), Fred Richmond (D-NY), Robert Drinan (D-MA), Leon Panetta (D-CA), Don Edwards (D-CA); Norman Mineta (D-CA), Pete Stark (D-CA}, Anthony Beileson (D-CA) George Brown (D-CA), Toby Moffett (D-CT), Dale Kildee (D-MI), Eugene Atkinson (D-PA), Michael Barnes (D-MD), David Bonior (D-MI), Adam Benjamin (D-IN), William Brodhead (D-MI), Robert Carr (D-MI), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Tom Downey (D-NY), Harold Hollenbeck (R-NJ), Pete Kostmayer (D-PA), Stewart McKinney (R-CT), Edward Markey (D-MA), Andrew Maguire (D-NJ) Rick Nolan (DFL-MN), Gerry Studds (D-MA), Bruce Vento (DFL-MN) and Howard Wolpe (D-MI).

The Harkin letter characterized the Chilean government as "an enemy of the American people" and urged the President to "take strong action against this terrorist government." The letter was released (9 A.M. on August 1 1979) at the same time a press statement from the Washington, DC, Chile Legislative Center of the National Coordinating Center in Solidarity with Chile, staffed by veterans of the Venceremos Brigade and the Communist Party USA, supported the Congressional letter and urged pressure so that the State Department does not accept a military trial of the three Chileans in Chile as a substitute for extradition and trial in the US

"Friends of Ireland"

March 16 1981, twenty-four American political figures, most of them of Irish ancestry, urged an end to the fear and the terrorism and the bigotry in Northern Ireland and proposed that the Reagan Administration find a way to promote a peaceful settlement of the Ulster conflict.

In a joint St. Patrick's Day statement, the 24 - including Governor Carey, Governor Byrne, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts -announced the creation of an organization seeking to facilitate greater understanding of the positive role America can play resolving this tragic conflict.

They stressed that the organization, known as the Friends of Ireland, will seek the unification of the six counties of Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic but that the goal can be reached only with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland, and with full safeguards for the rights of both sections of the community.

It was the fourth consecutive year that the group had issued a statement on St. Patrick's Day calling for an end to violence in Ulster, but it was the first time it had sought to define a role for the United States. The group was set up to counter a vocal lobby for the Irish Republican Army.

Two-thirds of the people of Northern Ireland are Protestants, while the Irish Republic is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Efforts to resolve the violent conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and work out a settlement aimed at erasing the border, have been thwarted by terrorists on both sides.

The statement urged the Administration to play a constructive role in Northern Ireland and support a policy that helps bring terrorism to an end, that demands respect for the human rights of all the people of Northern Ireland, that recognizes the legitimate aspirations of both the Protestant and Catholic communities, and that strengthens the ties between two of America's closest friends - Ireland and Great Britain.

The Irish Government promptly applauded the creation of the group. In a statement released by the Irish Embassy here, Prime Minister Charles Haughey said that the links between the Irish and American peoples, which are of such long standing, will be even further strengthened by the setting up of this group.

In their statement, the political figures said that the Friends of Ireland will be open to all members of Congress and will strive to inform Congress and the country fully about all aspects of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

It will emphasize our concern, the statement said, for both the Catholic and Protestant traditions in Ireland. Besides Governors Carey and Byrne and Senators Moynihan and Kennedy, the following officials signed the statement: The Speaker of the House, Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy of Rhode Island Senator Joe Biden, Democrat of Delaware, Senator Alan Cranston, Democrat of California Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, Senator Thomas Eagleton, Democrat of Missouri Senator Daniel Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii Senator, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont Senator George Mitchell, Democrat of Maine Senator Claiborne Pell, Democrat of Rhode Island, Senator William Proxmire, Democrat of Wisconsin Representative Edward Boland, Democrat of Massachusetts, Representative Charles Dougherty, Republican of Pennsylvania Representative Thomas Foley, Democrat of Washington Representative James Howard, Democrat of New Jersey, Representative Paul N. McCloskey, Jr., Republican of California Representative Joseph McDade, Republican of Pennsylvania Representative Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. Representative James Shannon, Democrat of Massachusetts, Representative Pat Williams, Democrat of Montana.

Linder letter

In 1987, the death of Benjamin Linder, the first American killed by U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras -- ignited a firestorm of protest and debate.

In the summer of 1983, the 23-year-old supporter of the Marxist Sandinista government, arrived in Managua with a newly earned degree in engineering. In 1986, Linder moved from Managua to El Cuá, a village in the Nicaraguan war zone, where he helped form a team to build a hydroplant to bring electricity to the town. He was ambushed and killed by the Contras the following year while surveying a stream for a possible hydroplant.

Despite testimony from the ambushers that Linder was armed and wearing a Sandinista military uniform at the time of the ambush, many Sandinista sympathizers tried to portray Linder's death as the deliberate murder of an unarmed civilian.

US Reps Ed Markey, Les AuCoin, George Crockett, David Bonior, Peter Rodino, Peter DeFazio, Ron Wyden, wrote an April 29. 1987 letter to Secratary of Stae George Schultze, the day after Linder's death, repeating the story that Linder was reportedly, unarmed, and asking questions as to the circumstances of Linder's death, including if the killing was committed by US backed "Contra" rebels.

Voted against support for "Contras"

The Congressional Record of February 3, 1988 shows that the following leading Democratic Party Congressmen voted against aid to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters - the "Contras"- then fighting against the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government of Nicaragua:

• Les Aspin
• Les AuCoin
• Ed Boland
• David Bonior
• Don Bonker
• Barbara Boxer
• George Brown
• John Conyers
• George Crockett
• Ron Dellums
• Tom Downey
• Mervyn Dymally
• Don Edwards
• Mike Espy
• Barney Frank
• Sam Gejdenson
• Richard Gephardt
• William Gray
• Lee Hamilton
• Charles Hayes
• Robert Kastenmeier
• Joseph Kennedy
• Pete Kostmayer
• James Leach
• Ed Markey
• Nancy Pelosi
• J. J. Pickle
• Charles Rangel
• Peter Rodino
• Dan Rostenkowski
• Gus Savage
• Patricia Schroeder
• Steven Solarz
• Gerry Studds
• Morris Udall
• Ted Weiss
• Howard Wolpe
• Sidney Yates

The "Freeze" movement

Inspired by Spock

In the early 1960s SANE "recognized the environmental and health impact brought on by the nuclear age". In 1962, convinced that nuclear testing would have a negative effect on generations of children, Dr. Benjamin Spock made an "inspired move" to unite health care professionals with the nuclear abolition movement.

SANE’s Executive Director, Homer Jack, convinced Spock to go public with his beliefs. The New York Times advertisement declared “Dr. Spock is Worried” and "our nation took to the streets in defense of children and the environment".

The connection was clear. Nuclear testing left radiated uranium deposits in the soil and water table. Once dispersed, the radiation infected the grass and grazing animals - moving its way through the ecosystem into our food supply and into our bodies.

At a late 2000s Peace Action Congressional book reception, Congressperson Ed Markey commented on this truth and how Dr. Spock inspired him as a teenager to get involved in the nuclear abolition movement.

Nuclear Freeze

During the 1979 SALT II debate, Oregon's far left Republican Senator Mark Hatfield introduced an amendment that called for a “strategic weapons freeze,” which helped provide the impetus for the popular Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and would ricochet back into Washington and prompt Hatfield and other members of Congress to act.

As tensions between Washington and Moscow mounted in 1982 and the two countries built up their nuclear arsenals even further, Hatfield and other members of Congress 'heard from their constituents", who sought a way off the escalatory ladder and were calling for a “nuclear freeze” with the Soviet Union on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear warheads and delivery systems.

“We heard from people at every stop who knew about the nuclear freeze proposal and wanted us to support it. ‘Why not?’ they asked. We found that question difficult to answer,” Hatfield and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) later explained in their 1982 book Freeze! How You Can Help Prevent Nuclear War. “A new arms control initiative was needed to offer leadership in Congress and respond to the growing public concern,” they wrote.

On March 10, 1982, Hatfield and Kennedy joined House proponents of the freeze, including Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.), to introduce a “sense of Congress” resolution based directly on a widely disseminated document, “Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” developed by Randall Forsberg, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology defense policy expert who would later join the board of directors of the Arms Control Association. With the backing of Hatfield and Kennedy, the effort gained broad-based popular and expert support, national attention, and increasing political momentum.

Following new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s announcement in July 1985 that the Soviet Union would forgo tests and that the Soviet Union would not test until and unless the United States began testing, the Reagan administration declined to reciprocate. In October 1986, a bipartisan group of 63 House and Senate members, led by Hatfield, Senator Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), Representative Les Aspin (D-Wis.), and others, sent a letter to Reagan urging him to reciprocate and call off the next scheduled test in Nevada, code-named Glencoe.

Cranston and Hatfield also introduced legislation seeking to bar the spending of money to carry out U.S. nuclear tests if the Soviet Union was not doing so. Their initiative did not succeed, but it would get another chance.

Origins of the "freeze" movement

The freeze campaign became the strongest of the nation-wide American political initiatives during the eighties. In Randall Forsberg’s paper, “The Call to Halt the Arms Race,” she suggested an immediate, verifiable, comprehensive, bilateral cessation of production, testing, and deployment of new nuclear weapons and delivery systems.Actual disarmament could be deferred. The strategy was originally developed by several East Coast disarmament and peace organizations in 1980, which included AFSC, FOR, Clergy and Laity Concerned , and a research organization headed by Forsberg, the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. Among the key organizers of the campaign were Pam Solo (then a Loretto nun) and Randy Kehler. The freeze idea caught the imagination of the public and a national poll showed that in April 1982, 81 percent of the public approved it.

The freeze movement faced a political dilemma: whether or not to work closely with such politicians as Senator Edward Kennedy and Congressman Ed Markey, who could improve the odds of turning the freeze idea into legislation but at the cost of narrowing the political demands. The organizers opted to work with the politicians, who introduced the Kennedy-Hatfield freeze resolution to the Senate, only to see the administration immediately try to stifle it. The freeze resolution in the House of Representatives passed in May, 1983, but some activists saw the votes in Congress as premature and ultimately counterproductive.

Until March 1983 the antinuclear movement was focusing mainly on the INF missiles for Europe and the MX missiles for the United States. Suddenly a new set of problems was presented when President Reagan announced the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) program — known by the public as “Star Wars.” The Union of Concerned Scientists and the Federation of American Scientists launched a campaign against the project, calling the immensely costly project scientifically unworkable and strategically unsound. The most obvious immediate effect of the program was to terrify the Soviet leaders, who felt it necessary, above all else, to prevent a race for supremacy in these so-called “defensive” weapons.

The freeze campaign shared that ambition: to block Star Wars and all nuclear weapons. By the time the next presidential campaign began, the freeze organization was calling itself “Freeze Voter ’84.” The organizers met with all the candidates, of whom Walter Mondale and Alan Cranston were the most receptive. Gary Hart, who was a front-runner along with Mondale, placed an ad in the New York Times promising that, if elected, he would initiate a test ban. Mondale promised the same thing.8

In some ways, Freeze Voter ’84 was successful.It raised almost $1.5 million for the 1984 elections. Out of eight senate candidates whom it supported, four won. Out of the 37 House candidates it supported, 24 won. But the presidential race was another matter: Ronald Reagan was re-elected.9

However, the second-term Reagan was a different politician from the first-term Reagan, and this fact can largely be attributed to the success of the freeze campaign. He had learned to stop speaking loosely about “nuclear warning shots” or joking that “the bombing will begin in five minutes.” But freeze activists were hardly bouyed up by considering these changes as evidence of their success. On the contrary; by 1986, the freeze campaign found it necessary to merge with SANE, chiefly for financial reasons.

Although the freeze movement was the most prominent American political campaign of the eighties, its strength came from a variety of other supportive peace groups, many of them older organizations that also sustained their own projects. Existing disarmament groups multiplied in size during the mid-eighties and hundreds of other new groups came into existence and briefly played important roles. The historic peace churches continued active, of course. Then there were old grassroots organizations such as WILPF, Mobilization for Survival, and the War Resisters League, plus lobbying groups in Washington, such as SANE and the Council for a Livable World.

Public "wants test ban"

April 17, 1986, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy said a poll it commissioned with Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J., also showed that 60 percent of U.S. citizens believe the United States should halt nuclear weapons testing as long as the Soviet Union stops its tests.

The poll shows beyond a doubt that the vast majority of Americans want President Reagan to stop nuclear testing, especially before any second summit meeting, said David Cortright, executive director of the group.

The poll results were announced as several members of Congress pushed for House consideration of an amendment to cut off money for nuclear weapons testing until the president certifies that the Soviet Union has conducted another test.

The House Rules Committee agreed Thursday to allow consideration of the amendment in conjunction with a $1.7 billion supplemental spending bill scheduled to come up next Tuesday. The committee said debate and amendments to the testing cutoff would be limited to two hours.

What we're trying to do is break the administration's testing habit - cold turkey, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said at a news conference with officials from the anti-nuclear group.

Markey said he and Reps. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., and Tom Downey, D-N.Y., had planned to offer their amendment cutting off nuclear test funds Thursday on the House floor. But their vehicle, the supplemental appropriations bill, was pulled off the floor Wednesday after an unusual parliamentary maneuver.

According to the organization, governors or legislatures in five states - Washington, New York, Hawaii, Ohio and Rhode Island - have adopted test ban resolutions. More than 60 communities in 13 states have passed similar resolutions, the group said, while 25 Nobel laureates signed an April 8 letter to Reagan urging him to stop testing until a summit or until the Soviet Union resumed testing.

SANE also released a nuclear test ban endorsement signed by five former high-ranking government officials including former CIA director William Colby; former arms control negotiator Paul Warnke; former scientific director Jerome Weisner; former deputy secretary of the Air Force Townsend Hoopes; and former deputy assistant defense secretary Adam Yarmolinsky.

Tribute to Randall Forsberg

Ed Markey placed a tribute in the Congressional Record, October 23, 2007, to mark the death of "Nuclear Freeze" activist Randall Forsberg.

Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to mark the passing of my friend Randall Forsberg, but it is with pride, admiration, and thankfulness that I remember her enormous contributions to the cause of nuclear disarmament.

Randy Forsberg was the mother of the Nuclear Freeze movement. When she was a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, she put forward a simple and inspired proposal: to end the ‘‘testing, production, and deployment’’ of all nuclear weapons everywhere. With her ‘‘Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,’’ and her tireless advocacy for a nuclear weapons freeze, Randy galvanized a national grassroots campaign to end the threat of nuclear weapons.

I was proud to introduce the very first nuclear freeze resolution in the Congress, and to work for its successful passage on the House floor in the spring of 1983. That vote shocked many within the dusty confines of the foreign policy establishment, who simply could not comprehend that ordinary citizens understood the unique and intolerable threat of nuclear weapons and that the American public would demand a fundamentally different course be set.

Randy was at the center of the Nuclear Freeze throughout the country, and was a guiding light to many who believed in the necessity of the Nuclear Freeze. While the Freeze did not pass in the Senate, the activism that this movement created led the Congress to pass other legislation to cut in half the proposed size of the MX missile force, ban anti-satellite weapons testing in space, cut funding for Star Wars missile defenses, and to propose a moratorium on underground nuclear weapons testing.

Those Congressional initiatives in turn, led the Reagan Administration— which came to office opposed to arms control— to sign the START and INF treaties with the Soviet Union.

In order to advance a nuclear weapons freeze, Randy founded the Institute for Defense & Disarmament Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1980. Since that time, IDDS has been an important part of the arms control community in the United States and abroad.

Through its numerous publications, including its World Arms Database, IDDS has provided vital information and analysis to both policy makers and the public at large.

Randy Forsberg passed away last Friday night, ending a long battle with endometrial cancer during which she had shown incredible bravery and dignity. My thoughts and prayers are with her daughter, Katarina Lilly, her mother, Genie Watson, and her sister, Celia Seupel.

With Randy Forsberg’s death, the world has lost an eloquent and inspired advocate for nuclear disarmament. But the cause to which she devoted her life endures, and her example serves to inspire others who share her dream of a world without nuclear weapons.

Effects of the "Freeze" movement

What the freeze movement did in the United States, like the Greens in Europe, was to bring nuclear strategy out of the elite foreign policy salons and move it to the grass roots, said Representative Edward J. Markey, a leader of the freeze campaign. Public education led to public activism, and public activism has seriously constrained decision-makers' options over the last six or seven years.

It was the movement, combined with the rise of Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, that created an irreversible momentum toward reduction of nuclear weapons on both sides, said Mr. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Markey Looks to Revive Movement for Arms Freeze

Alarmed by the increased dangers of nuclear warfare in the post-Sept. 11 world, Representative Edward J. Markey and a group of veteran antinuclear activists sought to revive an old initiative - the movement for a nuclear freeze - to reinvigorate a worldwide campaign against the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons.

In a news conference June 11,2002, Markey urged President Bush to renounce proposals that the US adjust its strategic doctrine to allow the first use of nuclear weapons, and said the United States should agree to a permanent end to the testing of nuclear warheads.

The Bush administration is leading the country in the wrong direction in almost every aspect of nuclear policy, Markey said.

Markey introduced a joint resolution that called for an end to the development, testing, and production of nuclear weapons, the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and greater efforts to stop the proliferation of nuclear technologies to rogue regimes such as North Korea and Iran.

The resolution was offered 20 years after Markey played a major role in the nuclear freeze movement. Jonathan Schell, a leader in the original movement and a cofounder of Urgent Call to end nuclear danger, said the world faces a second nuclear age, with dangers that are springing up all over.

SANE Act

Massachusetts representative Ed Markey introduced a House bill 7394, titled the Smarter Approaches to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act of 2012 in the House of Representatives, in February. He was joined by 34 co-sponsors. Numerous organizations around the country, including OREPA, signed on in support of the legislation as it was being prepared.

Markey’s bill calls for a dramatic reduction in the number of delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons, for the termination of the B61 and W78 Life Extension Programs, and the termination of the Uranium Processing Facility at Oak Ridge as well as the CMRR-NF in Los Alamos and the MOX plant at Savannah River.

Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) Floor Statement “Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act of 2012” Wednesday, February 8, 2012.

“Mr. Speaker, America’s nuclear weapons budget is locked in a Cold War time machine.

“It doesn’t reflect our 21st century security needs. It makes no sense. It’s insane.

• It’s insane to spend $10 billion building new plants to make uranium and plutonium for new nuclear bombs when we’re cutting our nuclear arsenal and the plants we have now work just fine.

• It’s insane that we’re going to spend $84 billion for up to 14 new nuclear submarines when just one sub can with 96 nuclear bombs on board can blow up every major city in Iran, China and North Korea.

“It’s an insane strategy, but it’s our current plan.

“That’s why we need a sane approach to our nuclear weapons budget.

“Today I am introducing the SANE Act – the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act – with 34 of my colleagues.

“The SANE Act cuts $100 billion in spending on outdated, wasteful nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years. Let’s cut new nuclear weapons and not programs for the poor, the elderly, the sick and the children of our country.

“I urge my Colleagues to cosponsor the SANE Act.”

SANE Act named after SANE

Former SANE director David Cortright, wrote in his self named blog, March 7, 2012;

I was delighted in early February to see that Representative Ed Markey has introduced a new bill in Congress, the SANE (Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures) Act. Markey’s bill calls for significant reductions in nuclear weapons, for a savings of about $100 billion over the next 10 years. Markey remains, as he has been for more than 30 years, the most significant leader and articulate voice in Congress for nuclear arms reduction. I’m glad to see he is still at it.

As the former executive director of SANE, I was thrilled to see renewed reference to the venerable SANE brand. When I was with SANE in the 1980s we worked closely with Markey. I continued to cooperate with him on disarmament initiatives after that—including the Urgent Call, a nuclear abolition appeal launched in 2002 with Jonathan Schell and Randy Forsberg.

When I contacted Markey’s office recently to congratulate him for introducing the SANE Act and making reference to our organization, his staff said the SANE acronym was intentional, to recall the halcyon days of the 1980s when the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign was sweeping across the country like a populist prairie fire and SANE was growing rapidly into a formidable mass membership organization.

In 1982 Markey was the original sponsor of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Resolution in Congress. Later that year he spoke before a million people in New York’s Central Park for the June 12 rally to freeze and reverse the arms race, the largest peace and disarmament rally ever held in the United States. SANE was actively involved in helping to organize that rally.

In the late 1980s SANE merged with the Freeze Campaign to form a united organization that still exists today as Peace Action. At that time some board members of SANE were reluctant to see the name go. They didn’t want to lose the legacy and history of SANE dating from the late 1950s, reflected in the involvement of such luminaries as Norman Cousins, Steve Allen, Ben Spock, and Coretta Scott King.

SANE Act returns

On February 27, 2014, Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced S. 2070, the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE Act) of 2014. The bill would save U.S. taxpayers about $100 billion over ten years by scaling down, delaying, or canceling a variety of nuclear weapons programs and facilities. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced a companion version in the House, H.R. 4107, the REIN-IN Act.

Vote peace rally

Federation of American Scientists Public Service Award

Since 1971, the far left Federation of American Scientists has recognized an outstanding statesman or public interest advocate who they believe has made a distinctive contribution to public policy at the intersection of science and national security. The award went to Ed Markey in 2007.

Student peace rally

In May 1984 Ed Markey, Mel King, Victor Weisskopf, John Pastore, Roberta Snow, Monica Eisenbud addressed a student peace rally in Copley Square Boston.

Nuclear Y2K Symposium

Monday, March 8, 1999, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. a Nuclear Y2K Symposium, was held in Canon House Office Building, Caucus Room 345, Speakers: Dr. Helen Caldicott, Rep. Ed Markey, Sen. Tom Harkin, Bill Ulrich, David Lochbaum, Michio Kaku, Rock Cowles, Paul Gunter, Michael Murphy, Judith Johnsrud, Dan Plesch, Dr. Ted Taylor, Bruce Blair, Michael Kraig, Stephen Young, and others.

Peace Pledge Coalition

In 2007 90 Members of Congress, pledged in an open letter delivered to President Bush: "We will only support appropriating funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of all our troops out of Iraq before you leave office." The letter was initiated by the Peace Pledge Coalition. The Coalition was led by Tim Carpenter, Progressive Democrats of America, Bob Fertik, Democrats.com Medea Benjamin, CodePink, Bill Fletcher, co-founder of Center for Labor Renewal David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org, Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America, Kevin Zeese, Voters for Peace, Democracy Rising, Brad Friedman, co-founder of Velvet Revolution, Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign.

Edward Markey signed the letter.

2009 letter on Colombia

From November 6th through December 7th 2009, a letter calling for change in U.S. policy towards Colombia was circulated through the House of Representatives. This letter called for a decrease in U.S. aid for Colombia's military and an increase in support for human rights and humanitarian efforts. The initiators of this letter were —Representatives James McGovern, Jan Schakowsky, Donald Payne, and Mike Honda.

Dear Secretary of State Clinton,

The FY 2011 budget will contain the twelfth year of a major aid package to Colombia—an aid package originally slated to phase out after six years.

After eleven years, it is time to scale down assistance for Colombia's military and more systematically "Colombianize" such programs, within both the State Department and Defense Department budgets.

Signatories included Ed Markey.

Voted against cutting funding for ACORN

In September 2009, following the lead of their Senate colleagues, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to cut off funds to ACORN. the vote was 345-75. All of the 75 were Democrats, and included Ed Markey.

Reception Honoring Martha Coakley

On Jan. 12, 2010 a reception honoring Martha Coakley was held at the Sonoma Restaurant, 223 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C. Among those present were Senator John Kerry and Representatives, Ed Markey, Richard Neal, William Delahunt, John Tierney, Stephen Lynch, Barney Frank, John Olver, Jim McGovern, Michael Capuano and Niki Tsongas.

Hosts of the reception donated $10,000 and included Nick Allard, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., the Boston Scientific Political Action Committee, Chuck Brain, Susan Brophy, Mary Beth Cahill, Steve Champlin, Licy Do Canto, Gerald S. J. Cassidy, David Castagnetti, Steve Elmendorf, Candy Ergen, Cahrlie Ergen, Shannon Finley, Larry Harris, Tom Hogan, Carol Kenner, Stephanie Markiewicz, Andy Miller, Heather Podesta, Tony Podesta, Robert Raben, Linda Singer and Bill Titelman.

Co-hosts of the reception donated $5,000 and included Marty Bienenstock, Sheryl Cohen, Chad Dale, Joe Eyer, Jamie Gorelick, Robin Leeds, Fred Liowther, Bernie Nash, Frank Purcell of the CRNA (Nurse Anesthetists) Political Action Committee and Melissa Schulman.

The administration for the reception was organized by Julia Hoffman.

Congressional Progressive Caucus

As of February 20 2009 Edward Markey was listed as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The Wilderness Society

On April 29, 2010, The Wilderness Society held a celebration for the 50^th anniversary of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Society's president, William H. Meadows joined Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and Mark Udall (D-CO), together with Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) in addressing the event. Also speaking were Luci Beach, Tom Campion, Brian Moore, Evan Hirsche, Mary Beth Beetham and Debbie Sease.

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

The following were, as of 2011, vice presidents of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament :

• Raphael Chegeni MP, Tanzania
• Senator Rosario Green, Mexico
• Sergei Kolesnikov MP, Russia
• Mi-Kyung Lee MP, Republic of Korea
• Rep Ed Markey, United States
• Baroness Sue Miller, United Kingdom
• Uta Zapf MP, Germany
• Helen Clark, New Zealand, PNND Honorary Member
• Senator Roméo Dallaire, Canada, PNND Special Representative
• Dennis Kucinich, United States, PNND UN Liaison

Physicians for Social Responsibility Press Conference

Physicians for Social Responsibility , Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) and the Institute for Policy Studies' Robert Alvarez held a joint press conference on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, National Press Club, First Amendment Lounge, on the ongoing impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to public health 25 years after the accident, the continuing nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, and the lessons from both for U.S. public health and safety. PSR also unveiled a new online interactive Evacuation Zone Map.

PSR doctors will outline how accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima pose a threat to the public's health and the real challenges of implementing evacuation plans in the event of an accident, especially near major metropolitan areas. Speakers will cover the latest findings regarding radiation exposure, the medical response to nuclear reactor accidents, and the implications of Fukushima and Chernobyl for US energy policy. .

Other speakers included;

• PSR Immediate Past President Jeff Patterson
• PSR President-Elect Andrew S. Kanter
• PSR Member of the Board Ira Helfand

Moderator was PSR Executive Director Peter Wilk

Egyptian visit

"Just weeks" after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Keith Ellison traveled to Egypt as part of a congressional delegation.

The March 2012 delegation met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and other high-ranking Egyptian government officials. While in Egypt, Nancy Pelosi and Members of Congress also met with civil society and religious minority leaders.

In addition to Leader Pelosi, other Members of the Congressional delegation were: Congressman George Miller of California, Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Congressman Nick Rahall of West Virginia, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, and Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota.

"Budget for All"

November 6, 2012 - by a three to one margin, Massachusetts voters "sent a clear message to both Democrats and Republicans in Washington about the federal budget crisis and the impending "fiscal cliff"". The Budget for All ballot question passed by 661,033 to 222,514 votes. It calls for no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or other vital programs; investment in useful jobs; an end to corporate tax loopholes and to the Bush cuts on taxes on high incomes; withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan now; and redirection of military spending to domestic needs and job creation. The question passed by a wide margin in every district and all 91 Massachusetts cities and towns where it appeared on the ballot, ranging from most of Greater Boston to Holyoke to Norwood, Lawrence and Fall River.

Initiated by over 80 community, peace, labor, and faith groups, the Budget for All was supported by State Treasurer Steve Grossman, State Auditor Suzanne Bump, and Representatives Barney Frank, Mike Capuano, Jim McGovern and Ed Markey, along with 10 State Senators, 18 State Representatives, and 15 city councilors.

State Senators backing the initiative were William Brownsberger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, Sal DiDomenico, Kenneth Donnelly, Pat Jehlen, Thomas McGee, Stanley Rosenberg, Dan Wolf.

State Representatives were Cory Atkins, Linda Dorcena Forry, Sean Garballey, Louis Kafka, Jay Kaufman, Jason Lewis, David Linsky, Denise Provost, Frank I. Smizik, Ellen Story, Timothy Toomey, Jr., Marty Walz, Alice Wolf.

Leaders of the movement were;

• Michael Kane, Mass Alliance
• Carolyn Federoff, AFGE Local 3258
• Paul Shannon, AFSC
• Lisette Le,RTTC/CAA
• Cole Harrison, Massachusetts Peace Action

Lifting travel ban on Cuba

A May 03, 2013 Press release from the radical controlled and Institute for Policy Studies affiliated Latin America Working Group's Cuba Team stated:

Due to your action/emails/phone calls we have 59 signatures from House representatives urging President Obama to support travel to Cuba by granting general licenses for ALL current categories of travel.

By eliminating the laborious license application process, especially for people-to-people groups, that is managed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the majority of the bureaucratic red tape that holds up licensable travel to Cuba would disappear and actually facilitate what the President wanted to see in 2011, liberalized travel regulations.

Signatories included Rep. Markey.

Council for a Livable World 2020

The Council for a Livable World endorsed Ed Markey in his 2020 bid for the US senate from Massachusetts.

For decades, Senator Ed Markey has been the most prominent congressional leader on behalf of nuclear arms control and non-proliferation. From leading the fight for a freeze on new nuclear weapons in the 1980s to his introduction of bills to cut the nuclear weapons budget and protect arms control agreements this year, he has always been a steadfast leader on our issues in Congress.

Markey serves on the Senate Commerce; Science and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Foreign Relations committees. He has sponsored or cosponsored all of the bills the Council tracks, and continues to make statements that further our cause.

He has also been a champion of other progressive policies, including: environmental, climate change, privacy, consumer protection, and gun safety legislation.

Facing a serious challenger, he needs our support.

Council for Livable World endorses Markey

Edward Markey landed another endorsement, January 2013, as the Council for a Livable World’s Board of Directors unanimously gave the veteran congressman a nod of support for his bid to become the Bay State's next U.S. senator.

“As a Bay Stater, I’m proud to have voted to endorse Rep. Markey’s candidacy for the Senate,” said Priscilla McMillan, of Cambridge, who is described as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations and one of the group's board members. “Markey's courage and far-sightedness in nearly four decades of public service leading the effort for greater control of nuclear weapons and better protection of the environment make him the perfect successor to Senator Kerry."

The organization says that it raised more than $200,000 to support Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's successful campaign against ex-Republican Senator Scott Brown, and that it will throw its financial weight behind Markey.

Peace Action endorsement

Massachusetts Peace Action endorsed Rep. Ed Markey for Senate, in 2013.

Ed Markey is a key leader in Congress on nuclear disarmament, nuclear power and climate change. He opposes the Afghanistan war and favors reducing military spending to fund social needs.

Markey has worked for nuclear disarmament for decades. Markey’s Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act, named for Peace Action’s predecessor organization, would cut $100 billion in nuclear weapons spending from the Federal budget. He is a constant critic of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s lax oversight of nuclear power plant safety and was joint sponsor of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill.

Markey has voted repeatedly against funding for the Afghanistan war and against the defense authorization and appropriation bills. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted for its Budget for All progressive budget amendment in 2011, and supported the Budget for All non-binding question which the voters of 91 Massachusetts cities and towns passed by an average 3 to 1 margin in.

Markey has not been a strong supporter of progressive positions on Israel/Palestine, and we hope to work with him in the future on these issues. Overall, his record on issues close to Peace Action’s mission is far better than that of Congressman Lynch. Markey will make the difference for peace and progress in the Senate.

Make sure Ed Markey knows the peace movement cares about the Senate race!

• Attend one of Mass. Peace Action’s Markey campaign parties. We’ll raise funds and energy for Markey and explain why Peace Action supports him. We’ll be holding parties in Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Newton, and Groveland in the coming weeks. Contact us for details!
• Donate to Markey’s campaign through our on-line donation page.
• Make your check out to “The Markey Committee” and send it to Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. We’ll bundle together all the donations we receive and hand them to the campaign
• Distribute our flyer, Ed Markey on War and Peace, to your friends and neighbors.

"Peace Action" parties

Party for Ed Markey for Senate!

Rep. Ed Markey Sunday, April 28, 2013, 4:00 pm • Suggested donation $50 to the Markey Campaign

Choice of 7 locations:

• Cambridge: Eva Moseley, host
• Groveland: Rachel Williams, host
• Jamaica Plain: Helen Raizen and Kathy Macdonald, hosts
• Milton: Tom Piatt and Kris Piatt, hosts
• Monterey: at the Monterey General Store; Pat Salomon, host
• Newton: Prasannan Parthasarathi, host
• Northampton: Marty Nathan and Elliot Fratkin, hosts

Peace Action "ally"

A 2013 Peace Action email blast signed by Paul Kawika Martin, described Ed Markey, as a Peace Action ally;

On April 30th, there will be a special election to fill the Senate vacancy left by the now Secretary of State, John Kerry. Please help Peace Action ally, Rep. Ed Markey, become the next Senator of Massachusetts.

Rep. Ed Markey is a key leader in Congress on abolishing nuclear weapons. He is the U.S. co-president of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, and his "SANE Act," named for Peace Action's predecessor organization, calls for cuts in spending on nuclear bomb production facilities, nuclear-armed bombers and submarines, the end of U.S. bombers' nuclear mission, and reduction in number of deployed weapons.

You can send Markey to the Senate now.

Markey has voted repeatedly against funding for the Afghanistan war and against the defense authorization and appropriation bills. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted for its Budget for All progressive budget amendment in 2011, and supported the Budget for All non-binding question which was passed by the voters by a 3 to 1 margin in 91 Massachusetts cities and towns.

With your support, Markey can become a Senator with more power to enact your, and Peace Action's, values.

The Fight For Our Future

With Cori Bush, Marie Newman, Rashida Tlaib, Ed Markey, Mike Siegel.

Progressive Democrats of America

Progressive Democrats of America backed Ed Markey in his 2013 US Senate run.

Ed Markey, PDA national Director Tim Carpenter

PDA 2020 endorsement

In 2020 Progressive Democrats of America endorsed Ed Markey's US Senate run.

PDA endorsement

Progressive Democrats of America formally voted to endorse Ed Markey in his 2013 US Senate run.

PDA phone bankers

Progressive Democrats of America organized phone banking teams for Markey.

Our core phone team has been working hard making calls for the past few weeks, and response has been great. But since Ed showed the sensitivity to suspend campaigning during the days after the tragedy in Boston, we now find ourselves a bit behind on our goal of total voter touches.

The election is next Tuesday, April 30, so we have no time to waste. We need you to make some simple phone calls from the comfort of you home. We provide all the training you need, you decide your schedule--whether it's 10 or 15 minutes here and there, or a couple of hour shift--and when we talk with them the response is great!

It's time for us to show solidarity with Ed Markey. Let me know you'll help right now and we'll have you up and running in no time. The vast majority like what Ed stands for. We just have to make sure they know they have to get out and vote April 30th!

We regularly put thousands and thousands of calls into targeted endorsed candidates races. Whether it was Norman Solomon in CA or Alan Grayson in FL, PDA members from all across the country have poured the calls in from out of state to make a real difference.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for anything you can do to bring this win home for all of us.

Solidarity!

Mike "Phone Guy" Fox, National Phone Bank Coordinator

The effort was successful;

Congressman Ed Markey won his MA Senate primary victory on Tuesday in a landslide: 58-42! PDA activists from across the country working together made thousands of phone calls in support of Ed Markey under Mike Fox's leadership. We want to take a moment to thank all of you who helped out on this important election.

Progressive Round Table

On April 18, 2013, Progressive Democrats of America held a Progressive Round Table in D.C. with staffers Joseph Wender from Rep Ed Markey's office, Jenny Perrino from Rep. John Conyers' office, and Jamie Long from Rep. Keith Ellison's office who reported on key legislation and joined us discussing austerity pressure, budget priorities and more.

We also welcomed Ethan Rosenkranz from the Project on Defense Alternatives, Stephen Miles from Win Without War, Miriam Pemberton from the Institute for Policy Studies, Joan Stallard from CODEPINK, and Michael Lighty as well as several NNU nurses who were holding their lobby day on the Hill.

PDA connection

In June 2013 Progressive Democrats of America assigned activists to deliver their material to almost every US Congressman and several Senators. Richard McElroy was assigned as contact for Rep. Markey.

DSA connections

Green New Deal for the people tour

Summer Lee, Kaniela Ing, Ed Markey.

Green New Deal Resolution

Washington (April 19, 2023) – During Earth Week and on the four-year anniversary of the Green New Deal Resolution, Representative Summer Lee (PA-12) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) will reintroduce the resolution at a press conference at the Senate Swamp on THURSDAY, April 20th at 12:00 PM. Lee will also join Senator to announce new legislation focused on tackling the intersecting climate and public health crises.

The lawmakers will be joined by Green New Deal members of Congress and labor, health, climate, and justice advocates to celebrate the intersectional coalition’s achievement in getting the Inflation Reduction Act passed—the federal government’s largest-ever investment in climate and clean energy—while outlining the fight ahead to deliver a just, Green New Deal future that upholds the promise of the resolution and the movement that it inspired.

— Senator Ed Markey —Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez —Representative Ro Khanna —Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) —Representative Greg Casar (TX-35) —Representative Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) —Representative Summer Lee (PA-12) —Representative Maxwell Frost (FL-10) —Representative Delia Ramirez (IL-03) —Representative Robert Garcia (CA-42) —Representative Becca Balint (VT) —Kaniela Ing, National Director of the Green New Deal Network —Sara Nelson, President of Association of Flight Attendants-CWA —Dr. Colleen Achong, SEIU Healthcare, Committee of Interns and Residents —Jacqui Patterson, Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project and Climate Justice Alliance member

Representatives Chellie Pingree and Valerie Foushee also showed up. THURSDAY, April 20th at 12:00 PM, Senate Swamp, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.

"End the Forever War"

END THE FOREVER WAR PLEDGE

The United States has been in a state of continuous, global, open-ended military conflict since 2001. Over 2.5 million troops have fought in this “Forever War” in over a dozen countries – including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Niger, Somalia, and Thailand. I pledge to the people of the United States of America, and to our military community in particular, that I will (1) fight to reclaim Congress’s constitutional authority to conduct oversight of U.S. foreign policy and independently debate whether to authorize each new use of military force, and (2) act to bring the Forever War to a responsible and expedient conclusion.

2020 signatories of the Common Defense pledge.

Federal Elected Officials

Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Joaquin Castro, Adriano Espaillat, Ruben Gallego, Barbara Lee, Jim McGovern, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Payne, Jr., Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Susan Wild.

DSA endorsement

Boston Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Ed Markey, in the 2013 Senate primary against Stephen Lynch.

Although their records overlap on many issues, and each has sometimes taken positions different from DSA, we believe Markey is the clear progressive choice, especially on foreign policy, abortion choice and the environment. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and in 2011 voted for its Budget for All amendment; last year he supported the Budget for All nonbinding question which passed in 91 Massachusetts cities and towns.

In the 1980s he was a Congressional leader of the Nuclear Freeze movement, and he remains an important voice on nuclear disarmament, as well as tax giveaways to Big Oil and climate change. It’s not surprising he is endorsed by Peace Action, MoveOn.org, NARAL and the League of Conservation Voters.

Markey is a good candidate, not a great one. Lynch has rightly criticized him on his vote for NAFTA and similar trade deals, even if Lynch has supported some of them himself. While he has a labor voting record in the mid-90% range, unions representing telephone workers—IBEW and CWA—haven’t always felt Markey was on their side in conflicts with Verizon and de-regulation. And on a democratic resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict or heading off a new war with Iran he often sides with AIPAC and the neo-conservatives—but then so do most Democrats and almost all Republicans.

Life is full of imperfect choices, but this one is clear enough.

DSAers Phonebanking for Markey

In May 2013, former Boston Democratic Socialists of America Treasurer Tom Canel invited DSAers to volunteer for day or evening phone banking to AFL-CIO members for the Ed Markey campaign at the Harvard Clerical and Technical Workers Union (which Tom helped organize).

Brian Corr connection

Brian Corr with Ed Markey.

Supporting bus strike

When bus drivers on Martha's Vineyard struck at the height of the tourist season in 2019, solidarity from longtime residents, including some DSA activists, helped them win. Key issues for the drivers were wages, which after 14 years of service are capped at $23.50 per hour, and health care, which covers only individual workers, not their families.

Founding DSA member and union-side labor attorney Jules Bernstein, along with DSA member Virginia Diamond and other progressive residents, helped lead the solidarity effort among residents. An op-ed by Bernstein in the July 10 Martha’s Vineyard Times, under the headline “Union-busting lands on Martha’s Vineyard shores” laid out a strong case for supporting the striking drivers. Management, he pointed out, seemed determined to break the strike and the union to reassert total control over working conditions. Massachusetts senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, supported the union.

Our Revolution

Our Revolution

Supported by Jay Livingstone

According to Eleanor LeCain, writing in the The Yankee Radical, a "true progressive is running for state representative" in Boston/Cambridge — Jay Livingstone — in a special election being held on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.

Livingstone is an experienced community leader with a proven record of hard work in advancing progressive ideals—let’s help him win by making some phone calls now, and helping on Election Day, May 28th.

A Massachusetts native, Livingstone teaches at Northeastern University and operates his own law practice, standing up against employer discrimination. He has been a key organizer in the campaigns of Rep. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Gov. Deval Patrick. As a "State Rep Jay will work hard for quality, affordable public education; increased funding for at-risk youth, the disabled and the elderly; improved public transportation; and sensible development that works for small businesses and preserves the quality of neighborhood life".

He has been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts and Boston Democratic Socialists of America — among many others.

Equal Opportunity for All Act

Job-hunters are increasingly being asked to agree to allow potential employers to view their personal credit information, a development that Sen. Elizabeth Warren says is unfairly keeping people out of the job market who've had financial setbacks or have reports that contain inaccurate information.

December 17, 2013 Warren introduced The Equal Opportunity for All Act in Congress, which would outlaw such credit checks in many cases except in areas such as national security. Warren told reporters in a conference call sponsored by the Demos Foundation, a liberal think-tank, that the legislation was long overdue.

"This is about basic fairness," said the first-term legislator, adding that many people have had their credit records tarnished during the recent economic downturn. "There is little to no evidence of any correlation between job performance and a credit score."

The bill is co-sponsored by by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D.-Ohio, Jeanne Shaheen, D.-N.H., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

ARA endorsement, 2014

The Alliance for Retired Americans Political Action Fund endorsed Edward Markey in 2014, also 2012.

Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015

S 299, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015, principal sponsors are Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

By May 20, it had accumulated 33 co-sponsors, including 26 Democrats - Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Dick Durbin, Thomas Carper, Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Boxer, Jack Reed, Debbie Stabenow, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Benjamin Cardin, Chris Coons, Dianne Feinstein, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Tammy Baldwin, Ed Markey, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill, Ron Wyden, Tim Kaine, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, Martin Heinrich .

Radical intern

Sedef Berq is a Legislative Correspondent in the U.S. Senate working on judicial, education, disability, and economic policy. Prior to her 2020 MPAC CLDP fellowship, she interned on Capitol Hill with Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Anthony Brown. She also served as a Policy Advisor for the Mckayla Wilkes and Jill P. Carter congressional campaigns during the 2020 election season.

The "Jihad" Caucus

In May 2015, a group of 14 U.S. senators, led by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, wrote a letter to President Obama urging him to allow 65,000 Syrians into the United States as refugees. This would require a dramatic expansion of the refugee program, and virtually guarantee that a sizable number of ISIS fighters would slip in among them. Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy called these Senators the "Jihad Caucus" because practically speaking, Jihad is what this request will bring.

The 14 senators demanding this massive influx of Syrians were: Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Patty Murray, Robert Menendez, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Ed Markey, Sherrod Brown, and Mazie Hirono.

These same 14 had sent another letter in April Demanding action on the Syrians.

Relief of Iran sanctions letter

According to the NIAC website, in March 2020 a team of prominent members of Congress urged their colleagues to sign a letter to the White House calling for immediate relief of sanctions to help ordinary Iranians combat the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is a critically important effort coming amid the Iranian people's hour of need. We need to make sure that Iranians have all the support they need to get medicine and respirators, food and basic goods and services to weather the pandemic. By supporting AOC's letter, we can send a powerful message to the Trump administration: now is not the time to kick the Iranian people when they are down. The U.S. must ease sanctions and send aid to help combat the spread of Coronavirus.

Take action today: urge your Representative to sign AOC's letter calling for urgent humanitarian relief for Iran.

Original signers of the letter include: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

IAPAC money

Senator Ed Markey received money from the Iranian American Political Action Committee during the 2014 election cycle.

Iran deal/Iranian money

In August 2015, Senator Ed Markey announced his support for the Iran deal that would let the Iran inspect its own Parchin nuclear weapons research site, conduct uranium enrichment, build advanced centrifuges, buy ballistic missiles, fund terrorism and have a near zero breakout time to a nuclear bomb.

Markey had topped the list of candidates supported by the Iran Lobby. And the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) had maxed out its contributions to his campaign.

Al Franken, another IAPAC backed politician who also benefited from Iran Lobby money, came out for Iran deal as well.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Iran Lobby’s third Democratic senator, also came out for the deal even though she only got half the IAPAC cash that Franken and Markey received.

As did Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had benefited from IAPAC money back when she first ran for Senator.

Chinese Progressive Association

Karen Chen connection

Ed Markey with Karen Chen.

Chinese Progressive Political Action Endorsement

July 31, 2020 Chinese Progressive Political Action endorsed Ed Markey for U.S. Senate. The announcement comes as mail-in and early voting begins in the primary election, and the Markey campaign is building on its strong momentum.

“We support Markey because he has been a steadfast advocate for progressive change, and we know he will continue to be a champion for environmental justice in the national response to climate change,” CPPA said.

“I am so grateful for this endorsement from CPPA. Their grassroots work in Boston has led to real, meaningful change across the city, and I am eager to continue working in the Senate to share that progress with Chinese communities across the state,” said Senator Ed Markey.

CPPA is a 501c4 organization based in the Greater Boston Area and focused on building the collective political power of the Chinese community. CPPA strives to bring full equality to communities, integrating grassroots organizing and civic action to promote the community’s agenda before, during, and after elections.

CPPA is committed to engaging communities to vote-by-mail during this pandemic, providing assistance so every citizen is able to voice their political preferences in a safe, health-conscious way.

Posing with the CPA

September 4 2017 Ed Markey tweeted "Amazing crowd to honor our workers and families and to demand dignity and a #livingwage. #FightFor15" at Boston Labor day rally as he posed with the Chinese Progressive Association (Boston).

Womens March

State Attorney General Maura Healey, Sen. Ed Markey, philanthropist Barbara Lee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Martin Walsh and State Treasurer Deb Goldberg march down Commonwealth Avenue for the Women's March for America in Boston, 2017.

Single Payer Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled Wednesday September 13, 2017 a new version of his plan to give everybody government-run health insurance, potentially opening a new chapter in the ongoing debate over how to make health care in the U.S. more affordable and available.

The plan calls for an overhaul of American health insurance with a souped-up, more generous version of Medicare replacing nearly all private health insurance ― and government exerting far more control over the cost of medical care. It would arguably be the most ambitious social welfare initiative in U.S. history, but Sanders told HuffPost in an interview Tuesday that he believes America is ready for it.

“The American people are catching on to where the Republicans are coming from, they see the limitations of the Affordable Care Act and they’re looking at the alternatives,” Sanders said. “And this is a rational alternative.”

That roster of co-sponsors includes a who’s-who list of potential Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, including Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Also backing the bill are Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Al Franken of Minnesota, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

MIRA press conference

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition joined U.S. Senator Ed Markey and several Dreamers in a call for urgent action in Congress to enable DACA recipients to stay legally in the U.S.

January 3, 2018 – Estefany attended one of Boston’s best high schools and earned good grades, but even with DACA, she didn’t qualify for most forms of financial aid and had to struggle to find her way into college. With an Unafraid Scholarship and a second grant, she was able to enroll in UMass Boston, planning to major in international relations.

On her first day of college, President Trump ended DACA.

“That crushed my heart,” she said.

Her status expires at the end of next semester. She can still study after that – but will she ever be able to pursue the career she’s working so hard for?

With U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey at her side, Estefany urged Congress to act now to pass the DREAM Act. “We need to pass something,” she said. “It’s not something you can do in a year, because in a year, I don’t know where I’m going to be, and all my hard work is going into the trash.”

Anti "Muslim ban" rally

February 2, 2017, a large protest was held in Copley Square against the ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Protest organizers and guests spoke from the steps of Trinity Church. These speakers included Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, CAIR - Massachusetts executive director John Robbins, and Cambridge City Councilman and MIT alumnus Nadeem Mazen.

Meeting Markey

CAIR - Massachusetts February 23, 2017.

It was a pleasure to meet with Senator Edward J. Markey yesterday, along with Cambridge City Councilor Nadeem Mazen and representatives from the Muslim Justice League and the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), to discuss the needs of the Massachusetts Muslim community! — with Shannon Al-Wakeel, Nadeem Mazen, Ed Markey and John Robbins.

Philippines connection

Human Rights in the Philippines

Senator Markey: Sponsor a Senate Hearing on Human Rights in the Philippines

US International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) and the Asian American Resource Workshop are meeting with Senator Markey's staff next week, and we need to make sure he knows Massachusetts is watching!

In the name of War on Terror and Drugs the president of the Philippines has conducted mass arrests and killings of the innocent. This spiked immediately after Trump's visit to the Philippines last year - including the killing of 72 year old Catholic priest Fr. Marcelito “Tito” Paez the day that he facilitated the release of a political prisoner and the massacre of indigenous peoples who were fighting the theft of their ancestral land by a corporation planting Nestle coffee. These heartbreaking incidents are supported by US tax dollars and just a few of many human rights abuses under Duterte, now totaling over 13k poor people killed in the Drug war, 140+ human rights defenders extra-judicially killed, and 300,000 primarily indigenous peoples and Moro people that remain displaced in Mindanao due to martial law.

It is our hope that the Foreign Affairs Committee on East Asia and the Pacific will agree to host a Senate hearing. Senator Markey is the co-chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee on East Asia and the Pacific, so his support is key.

Sign on to show your support, and we will bring the names of our supporters with us to our meeting with Senator Markey's staff!

Lobbying Markey

ICHRP US International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines added 6 new photos to the album: Lobbying and Public Forum in Boston — in Boston, Massachusetts. March 23 at 8:39am.

The solidarity movement for the Philippines is growing. Members and supporters of the ICHRP US International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and Malaya Movement in Boston successfully lobbied Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and held an equally successful public forum on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

US International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines March 23, 2018.

Massachusetts residents, human rights advocates and Sen. Ed Markey's staff takes a group picture with a sign that says "We Are Activists not Terrorists" in solidarity with Filipino activists targeted by Duterte's crackdown on dissent. — in Boston, Massachusetts.

Radical Field Director

Circa 2016 Carl Nilsson was Field Director for Ed Markey's Senate campaign.

Leftist Legislative Fellow

In 2020 Jesse Strecker was a Legislative Fellow, Office of Senator Edward Markey at United States Senate.

SR 59 Sponsor

February 7 2019 Ed Markey introduced SR 59 (Green New Deal) alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's companion bill HR 109 in the House.

"Be HEARD" Act

April 9 2019, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, was joined by Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA-5), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), to introduce the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (Be HEARD) in the Workplace Act, legislation which takes critical steps to ensure businesses have more resources to prevent harassment and workers have more support when they seek accountability and justice, and sends a clear message to those who think they can get away with assault or harassment on the job: time is up.

Senator Murray announced the introduction at a news conference with survivors and advocates who shared their personal stories about workplace assault and harassment, including Adriana Cazorla, a Washington state domestic worker and advocate with National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Maria del Carmen Ruelas, farm worker with Justice for Migrant Women Advocates who also resides in Washington state. Additionally, leaders from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) participated and highlighted the urgent need to pass the legislation.

“No matter who you are or where you work—whether you are the only woman on the board, or a janitor, or farm worker, you should be treated fairly, respectfully, and with dignity. This should be true no matter your gender or race, your religion or sexual orientation or age—and regardless of whether you have a disability or are a veteran.” said Senator Murray. “For far too long and for far too many people in our country this hasn’t been true. So today, I’m proud to be standing up to fight for change and make clear that time is up.”

In addition to Senator Murray, the Senate bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). The House bill is being introduced by Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA-5), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-8), and Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL-26).

Staff

The following are past and present staff:

• Vikrum Aiyer
• Giselle Barry
• Mark Bayer
• Binta Beard
• Michael Beckerman
• Virginia Benzan
• Jaclyn Lavender Bird
• Sarah Butler
• Margaret McClory Carril (Maggie)
• Pietro Cicolini
• Ellen Connell
• Elizabeth Creedon
• Mary Cronin
• Colin Crowell
• Joseph William Dalton (Joe)
• Jennifer De Leon
• Eliza Dewey
• Rocco DiRico
• Michael Disharoon
• Jeffrey Scott Duncan (Jeff)
• Tulani Elisa
• Nicole Marie Encarnacao
• Rudyard Favard
• Michal Freedhoff
• Mark Christopher Gallagher
• J. William Goold (Bill)
• Leslie Morgan Gray (Morgan)
• Toren Hardee
• Matthew Harutunian (Matt)
• Matthew Heriveaux
• Ramsay Hoguet
• MacKenize Howard
• William Huntington (Will)
• Jacky Ingram
• Avenel Joseph
• Israel Shai Klein (Izzy)
• Christine Kontra
• Oriana Korin
• Patrick Lally
• Carol Lederman
• William Marcellino
• Deborah Mauro (Debbie)
• Joseph McCarthy
• Tara McGuinness
• Elizabeth Weir McLean(Lisa)
• Ellen Morrissey
• Nancy Morrissey
• David Hurd Moulton
• Jillian Oberfield
• Grace Ogilby
• Kate Ostrander
• Amy Paolone
• Maryalice Parks
• Roberto Pena
• Maura Elizabeth Quinn
• Allyson Raines
• Daniel Reilly (Dan)
• Katharine Reinhalter (Kate)
• Mitchell Robinson (Mitch)
• Jeffrey Sadlowski
• Jessica Schafer
• Sara Schaumburg
• Sarah Schulman
• Melissa Shive
• Angelique Skoulas
• William Spring(Will)
• Ana Unruh Cohen
• Lorick Wash
• Joseph Wender
• Nicole Yeo

External links

• Markey's website with the House of Representatives

References

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