Current Position: U.S. Representative (since January 1977)
Credit: Ray Lustig/TWP
Why He Matters
With climate change and energy issues looming large in the national consciousness and near the top of President Barack Obama’s “to do” list, Markey’s star is on the rise.
As chairman of both the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, Markey is well-positioned to assist the Obama administration in addressing climate change and remaking the nation’s energy infrastructure. His history of environmental advocacy, overall legislative productivity and seniority make Markey an obvious choice to help advance these efforts.
In March 2009, he joined Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) to brief House Democrats on thier propose legislation, which would aggresively reduce harmful emissions through a cap-and-trade system. The bill passed the House in June 2009.
Spurred partially by Obama’s election, Markey’s committee appointments and increasing influence are part of a larger shift under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) towards a more environmentalist approach to energy policy and the prioritization of climate change legislation. Markey is taking over the Energy and the Environment subcommittee from Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) , whose district includes coal interests. Similarly, environmentalist Waxman (D-Calif.) ousted John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the former chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee, who counts Big Auto as a constituent group.
Apart from his current focus on energy and climate change, Markey has been a very productive and versatile legislator in his 32 years in Congress. He has helped pass landmark pieces of legislation on telecommunications, national security and privacy issues.
Though he is already 63 years old, there is some speculation that Markey might run for the Senate, perhaps for the seat left vacant by the 2009 death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Markey was gearing up for a Senate run when it seemed that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) might win the presidency in 2004, but given his more current committee chairmanships in the House, he is considered a less likely candidate for other office.
At a Glance
Current Position: Chairman, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (since 2007)
Career History: Chairman of the Telecommunications Subcommittee (1986 to 1994 and 2007 to 2008); Chairman of the Energy Conservation and Power Subcommittee (1982 to 1986); Mass. House of Reps (1973 to 1976)
Birthday: July 11, 1946
Hometown: Malden, Mass.
Alma Mater: Boston College, B.A. 1968, J.D. 1972
Spouse: Susan
Religion: Roman Catholic
DC Office: 2108 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, DC
202-225-2836
Phone: phone...
District Offices: Medford, 781-396-2900; Framingham, 508-875-2900
Email
Website
Path to Power
Edward Markey was born the son of a Catholic milkman in Malden, Mass., and graduated from Malden Catholic high school in 1964. He went on to attend Boston College where he received his B.A. in 1968 and his J.D. in 1972. After working as an attorney for a short time, Markey almost immediately went into politics when he won a state House seat in 1973.
Just three years later, Markey won a special election to fill the House seat for the 7th district, and he traveled to Washington for the first time when he joined the 94th Congress. He won this first Democratic primary with 22 percent of the vote in a 12-man race.
In his heavily Democratic district, Markey has never faced significant competition in his general election contests, but he once come close to losing the Democratic primary. In 1984 Markey was one of several Democrats campaigning for an open Senate seat that ultimately went to John Kerry. But Markey dropped out of the race in May and decided to run for re-election to his House seat. In the end he defeated state legislator Sam Rotondi (D) by a 54 to 41 percent margin, his narrowest since his first election race.
Friends in High Places
Markey’s early career got a boost from his friendship with former House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.), who helped him get on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell, who chaired that committee from 1981until 1994 and then again from 2007 to 2009, also liked Markey and in 1985 helped him become chairman of the coveted Telecommunications subcommittee, a position prized in part for its fundraising opportunities.
Though Markey was the 13th most senior member of the 110th Congress, he was left without a full committee chairmanship once House Democrats regained the majority in 2007. This is partially because he is outranked on Energy and Commerce by longtime House Members Dingell and Waxman, and also because he turned down a chairmanship of the full House Resources Committee in favor of the Telecommunications subcommittee gavel.
But when Pelosi created the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Markey got his break. Pelosi created the committee as a way of prioritizing climate change legislation and side-stepping Dingell, then the chair of Energy and Commerce with jurisdiction over global-warminglegislation, who she believed was impeding progress by protecting the auto industry in his Detroit-based district. In an effort to mollify Dingell, however, she stipulated that the committee would have no legislative authority.
Though the committee was set to expire at the end of the 110th Congress, Pelosi called for its renewal in November 2008, saying that their work on developing climate change legislation is not finished. “We want to do it right, and we want to do it in a bipartisan way, and we want to do it working with a new president of the United States,” Pelosi said. At the beginning of the 111th Congress, Markey was also appointed to chair the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, putting him in an excellent position to advance legislation confronting the climate crisis.
The Issues
Over his 32 years in the House, Markey has been one of the most productive legislators, getting bills passed on a wide range of issues, some completely unrelated to his committee assignments. He called for a Center for Disease Control investigation into the effect of electronic media on children, pressed for better pay for wounded veterans and federal regulations on amusement parks, and introduced the bill that extended Daylight Savings Time by four weeks a year. Markey has voted 100 percent of the time with the Democrats in the current session of Congress.
Climate Change and Energy Policy
In June 2008, Markey introduced the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act (H.R. 6186). The bill, called iCAP for short, aimed to reduce greenhouse gases by 85 percent by 2050 by forcing carbon emitters to purchase emissions allowances that would be sold at auction by the Environmental Protection Agency. The proceeds from these sales would then be used to offset higher energy costs for low-income families and to invest in carbon-saving or alternative-energy technologies.
The “cap-and-trade” system in Markey’s bill would cover 94 percent of emissions allowances – a much stricter measure (and thus even more unfavorable to big business) than the allowances included in the Lieberman-Warner bill climate change bill that failed in the Senate in summer 2008. Markey’s bill was referred to a dozen House subcommittees for review, but it never got anywhere.
In March 2009, Markey joined Waxman (D.-Calif.) to discuss a draft of new cap-and-legislation with House Democrats. Thier legislation would reduce carbon emissions at a rate even more aggressive than called for in President Obama's proposals. If passed, the bill would reduce carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050, based on 2005 levels. It would also require a quarter of the country's energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2025. The bill passed the House in June 2009.
Markey’s position on “cap-and-invest” emphasizes investing in renewable-energy technologies, something that President Obama has also described as a way of improving the environment and the economy simultaneously. It also doesn’t hurt that Markey’s district is full of technology firms that will likely benefit from such federal investment. “The green revolution can't be kick-started without Eastern Massachusetts,” he said in an interview.
Markey has a strong record of advocating for stricter auto- emission standards and other environmental causes. In 2005 and 2006, with Republicans still in the House majority, Markey pressed unsuccessfully for stricter mileage standards on cars and SUVs, and windfall taxes on oil companies. He has also drafted a bill to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a wilderness area to prevent oil drilling.
National Security
Markey has been a relentless opponent of nuclear proliferation and nuclear energy since the last decade of the Cold War. In the early 1980s, he was a leading proponent of the nuclear freeze, a proposed agreement between the United States and the USSR to halt the production of nuclear weapons. More recently, Markey sponsored legislation in 2001 to make all guards at nuclear plants federal employees, and in 2006 he sharply criticized an Energy Department program designed to increase nuclear energy production.
Markey has also been a vocal proponent of stricter air and maritime cargo security measures. In January 2007, when the Democrats regained control of Congress, the first bill they passed included two of Markey’s amendments requiring the screening of all maritime cargo for density and radiation, and similar requirements for all cargo on commercial planes. Both had previously been defeated in committee. Though he voted to authorize the Iraq war in 2002, by June 2004 Markey said he regretted the vote and introduced legislation to block the CIA from using extraordinary rendition to transfer terror suspects to prisons in countries where torture is legal.
Telecommunications
For nearly 10 years altogether, Markey chaired the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and made important policy advances in the area. Even during while Republicans held the House majority he retained significant sway; as the ranking minority member on Telecommunicationd, he was in the best position to broker a bipartisan consensus. As such, Markey played a significant role in the creation and passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in 62 years.
However, Markey has more often found himself on the losing side of telecommunications debates in recent years. He is a major proponent of “net neutrality,” the idea that internet providers should treat all clients equally and not charge more or restrict bandwidth for high-volume users, a position that is unpopular with large Internet providers and many other members of Congress.
The Economy
In fall 2008, Markey voted along with 139 other Democrats in favor of the $700 billion financial bailout measure that failed to pass in the House (it succeeded on the second try). “Nobody thought the bill before the House today was a perfect solution,” Markey said. “But after careful consideration, I decided to support this bill because I believe that a failure to act now would… put hard-working Americans at risk of losing their homes, their jobs and their savings.”
Like the rest of his party, Markey also voted in favor of the $789 billion federal stimulus package that passed in February 2009.
The Network
Markey is said to have a close relationship with House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. He also supports the other members of the Massachusetts delegation. During the 2004 presidential election, he raised money for
John F. Kerry and also assisted his campaign by convincing House Democrats not to endorse until after Iowa and New Hampshire, preventing
Howard Dean from gaining early support while allowing Kerry to rally.
Markey is also said to be close to Carol M. Browner, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator who has been tapped as Obama's new coordinator of energy and climate policy.
