Sen. Edward “Ed” Markey

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Markey.

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 liberal–conservative 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 6, 2015 to Mar 26, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Edward “Ed” Markey sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Security subcommittee Ranking Member

  Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Transportation and Safety subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy subcommittee Ranking Member

  Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
  Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight, Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Enacted Legislation

Markey was the primary sponsor of 26 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 708: INTERDICT Act
• S. 3148 (114th): John F. Kennedy Centennial Commission Act
• S. 1251 (114th): Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention Amendments Act
• H.R. 4087 (112th): Prescription Drug Labeling Promotion Act of 2012
• H.R. 2640 (112th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 462 Washington Street in Woburn, Massachusetts, as the “Officer John Maguire Post Office Building”.
• H.R. 4689 (111th): National Alzheimer’s Project Act
• H.R. 1494 (110th): Pediatric Medical Device Safety and Improvement Act of 2007

View All »

Does 26 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 (20%) Health (17%) Transportation and Public Works (16%) Energy (13%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Science, Technology, Communications (9%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Environmental Protection (7%)

Recent Bills

Some of Markey’s most recently sponsored bills include...

• S. 3530: A bill to amend the National Security Act of 1947 to require the ...
• S. 3528: A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to suspend the ...
• S.Res. 547: A resolution encouraging the President to use authorities provided by the Defense Production ...
• S. 3527: A bill to waive required minimum distribution rules for retirement plans in 2020.
• S. 3463: Warren Cowles Grade Crossing Safety Act
• S. 3470: A bill to establish the National Office of New Americans, to reduce obstacles ...
• S. 3411: KIDS Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jul 2013 to Mar 2020, Markey missed 53 of 2,094 roll call votes, which is 2.5%. This is on par with the median of 1.4% 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