Progressive Action Score: 71

• For more than three decades, the United States has been a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, better known as the Non-Proliferation treaty. This treaty requires the United States to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament." George W. Bush has been fond of using images of mushroom clouds and nuclear proliferation to push the country into war. Yet under George W. Bush, the United States has failed to pursue negotiations in good, middling or even bad faith on nuclear arms or nuclear disarmament, marking a violation of this treaty which is essential to international peace.
  
  H.Res. 68 is a bill that calls on President Bush to issue a report indicating the means by which the United States will meet its numerous, legally-binding treaty obligations. Asking the president to obey the law seems like a no-brainer, right? Edward Markey seems to agree. Thanks are due to Rep. Markey for supporting what should be an obvious element of our foreign policy.
• World Water Day, celebrated on March 22, has a simple point: People ought to have sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation. This means that water pollution, through poor infrastructure as well as through disgusting policies like the Bush White House’s promotion of blending undertreated sewage into sources of drinking water, needs to brought under control.
  
  It has been 14 years since World Water Day was begun, but sadly, the environmentalist holiday is not yet being widely observed. In all the United States, there are only eight officially scheduled World Water Day events. Canada beats us, with eleven events.
  
  H.Res. 196 tries to turn this trajectory of indifference around, declaring support for the goals and ideals of World Water Day. Representative Markey has added one more measure of personal momentum to the movement by voting for this legislation.
• We are surrounded... surrounded! There is no way to escape. I am not talking about terrorists here. I am talking about the oceans. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans together provide our longest borders, and what happens to them rains down on us sooner or later. But despite our dependence on the good nature of our oceans, our nation is by action or lack of action allowing great disturbances to be wreaked upon them. Fisheries are being depleted. Algal blooms from our national runoff result in huge dead zones. And we remain trapped in impotent hope, year after year, as we wait to see which of our overpopulated floodplains will be battered by ocean storms next. In the face of these threats, our ocean policy remains fragmented and uncoordinated. That is what real Homeland Insecurity looks like, and that is what H.R. 21 attempts to ameliorate, by increasing coordination of agencies on policy issues related to our oceans and initiating research and action programs to learn more about our most porous border regions and reduce our collective vulnerability to biological, meteorological and military threats from them. Fortunately, Edward Markey is on board, recognizing the looming threats to our well-being based in oceanic neglect. Read H.R. 21 for yourself, then contact Rep. Markey with thanks for getting on top of the situation.
• There are valid disagreements reasonable people might have about the moral and mental status of living things. Some vegans, on the one hand, might argue against harming any animal. Others of us do not feel much bother about slipping a hook into a worm for a bit of fishing. But it is clear that birds have a high degree of awareness and can feel great pain. You might argue that some pain among birds is necessary for the generation of food. But when that pain is wholly unnecessary, who can support its continuation?
  
  H.R. 137 was a bill put before the Congress which declared it "unlawful for any person to knowingly sell, buy, transport, or deliver in interstate or foreign commerce a knife, a gaff, or any other sharp instrument attached, or designed or intended to be attached, to the leg of a bird for use in an animal fighting venture." In more brief terms, it outlawed the tools used solely for cockfighting, the ritual mutilation of birds for sport.
  
  H.R. 137 passed on a 368-39 vote, with the vast majority of members of Congress recognizing the needlessness of this particular brand of animal torture. Edward Markey cast a YES vote, making a reasonable stand on the side of mercy.
• Some bills really are no-brainers. In April 2006, the U.S. Senate ratified the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, which requires the emissions of some ozone-depleting greenhouse gases from oceangoing ships to be limited through regulation. H.R. 802 is a bill that would simply enact the changes necessary for the United States to live up to this treaty and reduce maritime pollution. What could be simpler and more sensible? Representative Markey agreed and cast a responsible YES vote on this bill.
• H.R. 1255, a bill that passed the house on a vote of 333-93 in the House of Representatives, was the work of a large congressional majority which believes that White House records belong ultimately to the people of the United States. When he entered office, George W. Bush issued an edict which assigned past presidents and their heirs the right to do with presidential records what they personally saw fit. This is a recipe for historically disastrous revisionism. H.R. 1255 reverses the Bush edict, returning the ownership of presidential records to the people of the United States and making them available (after a period of time) for complete and accurate, not gauzily redacted, historical research. Representative Markey voted for this bill, prioritizing the historical value of accuracy and the political value of openness above the prerogatives of those in power.
• H.R. 1257 is a bill that, if signed into law, would simply permit shareholders in a public corporation -- aka the owners -- to cast an advisory, non-binding vote approving or disapproving of executive pay packages. H.R. 1257 would also allow shareholders to vote their non-binding approval or disapproval of Golden Parachutes, the gigantic settlements corporate executives often give themselves as a condition of being fired for poor performance. Who would not support the idea of the owners of a corporation being able to publicly express their position on executive pay and severance packages? Thanks to Representative Markey for casting a YES vote on this bill when it came up for a roll-call vote, and acting to bring executive pay to the light of day.
• H.R. 1309, a bill that has passed the House on a vote of 308-117, removes the authoritarian stain placed on the government of the United States shortly after George W. Bush took office -- well, at least one of them. It used to be that citizens could access government documents through the Freedom of Information Act unless the government could affirmatively demonstrate the need for the document to remain private. George W. Bush changed that with an executive order in 2001, mandating that unless a citizen affirmatively demonstrated a lack of national security reasons for the disclosure of a document, the government could keep its documents off-limits. This is another authoritarian step in a nation founded on principles of openness and liberty. Edward Markey cast a YES vote for this bill, helping to return America from Orwellian darkness back to the light.
• H.R. 1415 is a bill proposed in the House of Representatives to repeal many of the most onerous features of the Military Commissions Act. If passed, some of its main acts would be to:
  • Restore the right of habeas corpus for people detained by the U.S.
  • Narrow the definition of the MCA term "unlawful enemy combatant" to individuals who directly participate in attacks against the United States.
  • Let United States detainees invoke the ethical codes of the Geneva Conventions again.
  • Let U.S. detainees obtain a civilian lawyer for their defense.
  • Prohibit the use of evidence garnered through torture.
  • Prohibit the use of hearsay, upon the discretion of a judge.
  • Let juries know how statements were obtained from detainees.
  • Permit federal appeals courts to review the decisions of military commissions.
  
  
  In short, H.R. 1415 would restore respect for the Constitution and a modicum of humanity to the government of the United States. Representative Markey has recognized how important the restoration of constitutional standards are to our country. One can only hope that enough members of the Congress will follow suit and help bring this bill toward passage.
  
  
• One of the historic firsts of the United States was the rejection of taxation without representation. Indeed, that is one of the reasons why the USA is independent of Great Britain today. H.R. 1905, a bill that has passed on a vote of 241-177 in the House of Representatives, fits in that historical context. If signed by George W. Bush, the bill will provide for congressional representation to the residents of the District of Columbia, who pay taxes just like you and me but who have no voting voice in Congress. Edward Markey casted a YES vote for this bill, helping to redress a long-standing wrong.

• H.R. 897 is a bill before the House of Representatives that would "require the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Interior, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development to provide to Congress copies and descriptions of contracts and task orders in excess of $5,000,000 for work to be performed in Iraq and Afghanistan." When Republicans controlled the Congress, they killed efforts to uncover corporate corruption and war profiteering. If there is really nothing going on with the contracts, then why is there a problem with looking at those contracts? Only those who think there is a problem and want to hide the problem could be opposed to Congressional oversight. Edward Markey apparently is comfortable with something being hidden, since the name of Rep. Markey does not currently appear in cosponsorship of this legislation. Contact Rep. Markey and ask why.
• Back in February, Congressman Tom Lantos introduced a bill to the US House of Representatives called the Advance Democracy Act of 2007. It is registered by the Library of Congress as H.R. 982. The legislation would:
  1. Establish a Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor within the Department of State
  2. Create positions for Democracy Liaison Officers in the Department of State
  3. Require the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Directory of National Intelligence to monitor and document the flow of money within the United States from foreign nondemocratic governments
  4. Establish a Democracy Fellowship Program to encourage coordination between Congress and the Department of State on matters related to the promotion of democratic institutions around the world
  5. Create two studies by the Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion to evaluate the ways in which organizations are working around the world to promote democracy, and understand how the Department of State can better help these organizations
  6. Create a government web site dedicated to global democracy and human rights
  7. Develop pro-democratic programs by the United States missions in nondemocratic nations and nations transitioning to democracy
  8. Provide funds for an International Center for Democratic Transition, dedicated to helping nations move from dictatorship to democracy. The center has already been proposed by the government of Hungary, and has the support of other European nations
  9. Strengthen the Human Rights and Democracy Fund, already in place
  10. Give new energy to the effort to create a Democracy Caucus within the General Assembly of the United Nations
  11. Require the White House to use the Department of State and the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues to investigate violations of international humanitarian law by the leaders of other nations
  
  
  Promoting democracy around the world without dropping bombs on anybody. What a radical idea.
  
  The Advance Democracy Act of 2007 has a number of co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, but unfortunately Edward Markey is not among them. Please make a call and ask Representative Markey to co-sponsor of the Advance Democracy Act of 2007.
• A bedrock principle of American progressivism is the right of the individual to self-determination. A person should be able to choose how to govern their own body, not some Big Daddy government. H.R. 1964 defends individual autonomy with the declaration that "It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman," and with the institution of a variety of policies to ensure this policy is enacted. Edward Markey has to date failed to support this bill through cosponsorship. If you believe Congress ought to defend the individual against patronizing government intrusion, please contact Rep Markey and ask when cosponsorship of H.R. 1964 is going to happen.

Right Wing Index Score: 0

We are happy to report that among the political decisions by Representative Markey that we have tracked to date, not one qualifies as regressively conservative.