Ed Markey (Dem) U.S. House District 7 - Bio

Congressman Edward J. Markey is one of the most articulate voices in America for working families, consumers and protection of the environment. In Congress, Ed serves as Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He is also a senior member of the Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees and is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. From his position on these powerful committees, Ed has authored or helped shape every major environmental, energy and high tech policy over the last three decades.

Since the start of his Congressional career, Ed has been an outspoken leader for consumer rights, economic growth and affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans. He has fought to improve fuel efficiency standards for motor vehicles, to protect our planet from climate change, and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Hailed as the father of the Nuclear Freeze movement, his 1981 book Nuclear Peril sounded an early warning of the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of rogue states. In Congress, he has been the foremost Congressional opponents of nuclear proliferation, and is the founder and co-chair of the Non-Proliferation Task Force. He has always offered the view that renewable energy from the wind, the sun and other forces of nature provides the greatest opportunity for economic growth and environmental protection.

In 2007, after more than a decade of effort, Ed was able to pass the first Congressional increase in fuel economy standards in 32 years. This will raise the fuel economy standards of our vehicles from 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon backing out much of the oil from Saudi Arabia and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

On June 26, 2009, because of Ed’s tremendous leadership, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. The Waxman- Markey bill will reduce dangerous global warming pollution by over 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050. It will transform our energy system and create a clean, secure economy that will generate millions of new jobs with the development and implementation of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies across the country. It is arguably the most important energy and environmental bill in the history of the United States.

Ed is also a national leader for the protection of personal privacy, for universal healthcare, and for an open, affordable and accessible telecommunications system serving as a global leader to ensure net neutrality. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Telecommunications and Finance Committee for over 20 years, he fostered the growth of new information technologies and wrote the landmark laws that broke up telecommunications monopolies and that banned insider trading on Wall Street hailed as the most significant rewrite of securities legislation since the 1930’s.

Ed works tirelessly to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health to prevent and find cures for diseases that affect America's families. He is also the co-founder of the Bipartisan, Bicameral Taskforce on Alzheimer’s Disease and the co-founder of the Congressional Cystic Fibrosis Caucus.

Ed was born in Malden, Massachusetts. His father was a milkman for the Hood Milk Company. His mother graduated first in her class from high school but left school to raise her sisters after her own mother passed away. Ed attended Immaculate Conception Grammar School and Malden Catholic High School and then attended Boston College. He received his B.A. degree in 1968 and went on to earn his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1972. Ed served in the U.S. Army Reserve before running for election to the Massachusetts State House, and then the U.S. House of Representatives, where he has served since 1976.

He is married to Dr. Susan Blumenthal, a physician and public health expert.