Sen. Edward “Ed” Markey

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Markey is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Markey has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jan 20, 2022. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Edward “Ed” Markey sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
  • Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety subcommittee Chair

  Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy subcommittee Chair

  Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development, Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  Communications, Media, and Broadband, Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change, and Manufacturing, Space and Science, Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Enacted Legislation

Markey was the primary sponsor of 30 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 475: Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
• S. 684: Connecting America’s Active Transportation System Act
• S. 3527 (116th): A bill to waive required minimum distribution rules for retirement plans in 2020.
• S. 2152 (116th): A bill to require a study and report on Coast Guard interdiction of illicit drugs in the transit zones, and for other purposes.
• S. 708 (115th): INTERDICT Act
• S. 3148 (114th): John F. Kennedy Centennial Commission Act
• S. 1251 (114th): Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention Amendments Act

View All »

Does 30 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Markey sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (24%) Transportation and Public Works (20%) Health (14%) Crime and Law Enforcement (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Environmental Protection (8%) Energy (8%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Markey recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 3507: Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act of 2022
• S. 3352: FAIR Fees Act of 2021
• S. 3361: Protecting Community Television Act
• S. 3348: Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area Act of 2021
• S. 3327: Opioid QuOTA Act of 2021
• S. 3258: Flu Vaccine Act
• S. 3167: Fossil Free Finance Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jul 2013 to Jan 2022, Markey missed 106 of 2,844 roll call votes, which is 3.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

• unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
• The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
• United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
• Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills