Lawmakers introduced legislation to create position, affirm LGBT rights as a foreign policy priority Washington (February 5, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) today applauded the announcement from the State Department that it is creating a new Special Envoy position to advocate for LGBT rights. The... Read More

Lawmaker is author of the first net neutrality bill introduced in the House of Representatives   Washington (February 4, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, today released the following statement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced... Read More

WASHINGTON, DC - United States Senators from New England today introduced a resolution congratulating the Patriots on their Super Bowl victory. The resolution was sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne... Read More

Washington (February 4, 2015) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Corey Booker (D-N.J.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold a press conference to discuss the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) draft net neutrality rules. In July, several Democratic Senators wrote to the FCC urging it to... Read More

Senators cite new study that shows high levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde can be present in ‘vaping’   Washington, DC – Senators Jeff Merkley, Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) this week sent a letter to the Food and Drug... Read More

Washington (February 2, 2015) – Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) today praised President Obama for including $10 million for gun violence research in the Department of Health and Human Services Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. Last week, Senator Markey and Rep. Maloney and a group of Senate and House... Read More

Senators call for clarity, faster action on other Takata airbag safety defects   Washington, D.C. (January 31, 2015) – Following an announcement today by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it would be recalling more than two million vehicles due to airbags that might deploy inadvertently because of a... Read More

(Washington, DC) – In the wake of another recent potential death linked to Takata’s exploding airbags, U.S. Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fl.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today wrote to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Mark Rosekind to ask for a comprehensive update on... Read More

Lawmakers urge action as regulators prepare for energy auction that will set future rates across New England   Massachusetts – As consumers and businesses across New England continue to battle record-high energy costs, Senator Edward J. Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy III today increased pressure on federal regulators to... Read More

Washington (January 30, 2015) – Pitting Massachusetts’s finest seafood and brews against Washington’s, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey and Washington state Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell today announced a friendly wager ahead of the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle... Read More

Raising the overtime salary threshold would help millions of middle-class Americans earn time-and-a-half-pay when they work more than 40 hours a week     WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) joined more than two dozen Democratic senators reaffirmed their support for updating overtime rules to... Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recent reports that 100 million Verizon customers may have been spied on by an advertiser has spurred several key senators to demand an immediate and full explanation from the phone industry giant.    In a letter sent today to Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam, U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson, of Florida,... Read More

“Super Bowl media circus has nothing on this over-inflated debate” says Senator   WASHINGTON (January 29, 2015) – Now that the U.S. Senate has approved the construction of the Canadian Keystone export pipeline – which the White House has said it would veto – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today encouraged his... Read More

WASHINGTON (January 29, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) welcomed the lease sale for offshore wind off the coast of Massachusetts that was held today by the Department of Interior. The lease sale resulted in more than 500 square miles of new potential wind energy areas south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket that could... Read More

Legislation creates position in State Dept. to coordinate efforts to promote international LGBT human rights Washington (January 29, 2015) – In the wake of President Obama’s commitment in the State of the Union to defend the human rights of the LGBT community, today Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.)... Read More

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra to urge the automaker to extend its arbitrary January 31 deadline for victims of its deadly ignition switch defect to apply for inclusion in GM’s compensation fund. For nearly a decade,... Read More

Lawmaker is the House author of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act Washington (January 28, 2015) – More than twenty years ago, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was passed to protect consumers from unsolicited and intrusive telephone calls from telemarketers while families were eating meals together or parents were helping... Read More

Agency Plays a Critical Role in Providing Health Care to Millions and Addressing the World’s Most Urgent Humanitarian Crises   Washington (January 27, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) joined Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and 19 Senators in a letter sent today urging President Obama to continue strong U.S. support... Read More

WASHINGTON (January 27, 2015) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today released the following statement regarding the draft proposed plan by the Department of Interior to allow offshore drilling on the Atlantic coast. In August, Senator Markey led a letter with several of his colleagues to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell asking her to... Read More

East Coast Senators to Reject Obama Plan to Open Atlantic to Drilling   WASHINGTON – Democratic Senators from East Coast states will hold a press conference today to oppose the reported plan by the Obama administration to open up areas of the Atlantic Coast to offshore oil drilling. The reported plan will offer areas as close as 3 miles... Read More