[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6552-S6554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A MASSACHUSETTS PERSPECTIVE

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, today I am here to give my first speech 
on the floor of the Senate. I do so with deep respect and reverence for 
the history of this Chamber and for the giants of the Senate who have 
served before us. From Massachusetts, our recent roster of Senators 
reads like a history textbook: President John F. Kennedy, who inspired 
a Nation--President Kennedy's desk is right here, and it is so 
appropriate that my extraordinary partner from Massachusetts, Senator 
Warren, occupies it today--the legendary Ted Kennedy--he had the vision 
to make health care a right and not a privilege; Ed Brooke, the first 
African-American popularly elected to the Senate; Paul Tsongas, a model 
of independence; for 28 years John Kerry was a champion for the people 
of Massachusetts. Now he is our chief diplomat to the world, his skill 
already shown in his ability to bring Russia and Syria to the 
negotiating table.
  America is the greatest country on Earth.
  My father drove a truck for the Hood Milk Company. He graduated from 
the vocational program at Lawrence High School. My mother was going to 
be senior class president in high school, but her mother died when she 
was a junior. She had to abandon her college dreams to stay home and 
take care of her younger sisters.
  That was before the New Deal, before Social Security, and before 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In those days the

[[Page S6553]]

only social safety net for families was that one of the girls had to 
stay home.
  I was the first in my family to go to college. I drove an ice cream 
truck to work my way through Boston College as a commuter. I did the 
same for law school. I took out Federal student loans, like so many 
millions of American students have to do today.
  Thanks to the people of our State, this son of a milkman is now 
serving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.
  I am a son of Malden, but I do not come just to occupy a seat in the 
Senate. I come here to stand and to speak for all those families, to 
seek change that uplifts those families and their future. To everyone 
here I say: That will be how I conduct myself here in the Senate.
  I come here today to discuss my perspective, formed by the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, guided by its people, practiced in the 
House of Representatives for more than 36 years, and open to new 
knowledge, new ideas, and innovative ways to move our country forward.
  From its inception, Massachusetts has thrived because it is a 
wellspring for the advancement of humanity's ideas and ideals. Nearly 
400 years ago the pilgrims braved an uncertain passage to Plymouth as 
religious innovators, but the pilgrims would likely not have survived 
the new world's harsh environment without learning new ways from the 
native Wampanoag Indians--the ``people of the dawn,'' as their tribal 
name translates.
  So our bearings were set early in the Bay State. In a sense, we in 
Massachusetts are all people of the dawn, looking over the horizon 
toward a new frontier, striving to forge a better tomorrow.
  It is no surprise that when America moved from farms to factories it 
began in Massachusetts. Massachusetts has survived and it has thrived 
because of our tradition of innovation and imagination.
  We invent the materials that power our economy. We initiate the moral 
discussions that advance a Nation. We are never satisfied with what we 
have accomplished, instead, always pushing for progress and embracing 
the promise of the rising sun. We know from experience that when we 
invest in the future we create jobs here and now in our country.
  During the last few decades, the pursuit of the possible that is hard 
wired into our Massachusetts DNA has helped us weather tough economies 
and rough international competition better than many other States.
  We have become a high-tech, clean-tech, biotech hub for America and 
for the world. At places such as MIT and at companies such as Bolt, 
Beranek and Newman in Boston, the underlying architecture of the 
Internet was envisioned and set in motion.
  Earlier in my career, Congress passed three telecommunications bills 
on a bipartisan basis that I helped author. They removed barriers for 
innovation and unlocked opportunity for entrepreneurs, creating jobs in 
Massachusetts and across the Nation by unleashing more than $1 trillion 
of private sector investment in this emerging technology area.
  Now the future of telecom is mobile. Massachusetts has several 
hundred mobile companies. We have the strongest robotics centers in the 
Nation. We have the burgeoning digital games industry centered in our 
State. We are ready for the next generation of technology jobs because 
we spent decades building our digital foundation.
  Massachusetts was once the Nation's leading power producer, when 
Melville wrote ``Moby Dick'' by the light of a whale oil lamp. Now we 
are at the forefront of the most recent energy revolution.
  Our electricity is getting cleaner, we are using it smarter, and it 
is getting cheaper. Massachusetts is now the No. 1 State in the country 
when it comes to energy efficiency. Just yesterday Boston was named 
America's most energy-efficient city.
  Our shores will host the first offshore wind energy farm in the 
Nation. The same winds that brought the pilgrims to Plymouth Rock will 
now power a new generation of jobs in Massachusetts.
  Massachusetts is seventh in the Nation in solar installed per person, 
even in a State more known for the perfect storm than for perfect sunny 
days.
  In Massachusetts alone, clean energy now employs 80,000 people across 
5,000 businesses in our State.
  If we continue our commitments to clean energy, we will put 
steelworkers, iron workers, welders, and electricians to work building 
a new backbone for a new energy economy in the United States and around 
the world.
  Massachusetts is the hub for biotech on the entire planet. We are No. 
1 in per-capita dollars awarded by the National Institutes of Health, 
supporting 35,000 jobs Statewide. Health is our first wealth, but in 
Massachusetts it is also one of the best job creators.
  We are an idea factory pumping out new concepts, creating new 
companies that produce new jobs and discover cures for deadly diseases.
  In Massachusetts, we recognize that education is a ladder of 
opportunity that allows every child to maximize their God-given 
abilities. The first public school in America was established in 
Massachusetts. Today, Massachusetts students are No. 1 in the Nation in 
math, in reading, and tied for No. 1 with New York in science.
  For students in Massachusetts and around the country, we should never 
let the big dreams of attending college be thwarted by the small print 
of overly burdensome loans.
  As children learn in an online environment, we need to make sure they 
can grow, develop, and make mistakes that won't derail a promising 
future. That is why I will soon introduce my do not track kids 
legislation on a bipartisan basis to protect the privacy of children 
online.
  The value of our economy grows because it is imbued with our American 
values. What unites us is the unshakable belief that no matter where 
you come from, no matter what your circumstances, you can achieve the 
American dream. We believe everyone should get a fair shot. No one 
should be left behind.
  It is time to get back to the values that made Massachusetts and this 
country great. It is time to make real progress, creating an economy 
that works for everyone. It is time to protect a woman's right to 
choose. It is time to deliver to the LGBT community all of the 
protections and rights under the Constitution.
  It is time that we put real gun control measures on the books. The 
horrific mass shooting at the Navy yard is the latest deadly reminder 
that we need to do more to stem the tide of gun violence in this 
country. Newtown, Aurora--these tragedies are not inevitable, they are 
preventable. This senseless carnage must end.
  We need a ban on assault weapons, and we need a ban on high-capacity 
magazines. We need universal background checks combined with 
comprehensive care for our mentally ill. We need to put an end to the 
partisan gridlock that prevents even the most basic of gun control 
measures from becoming law.
  In the next few weeks we will see our seventh fight over our debt and 
deficit in the last couple of years. We need to break down this rampant 
ideology that threatens to turn a government that works for the people 
into a government that simply shuts down.
  We must also end the mindless across-the-board cuts from 
sequestration. Cutting programs such as Head Start will leave a 
generation of kids lagging behind. Slashing investments in science 
means the breakthroughs that create jobs and cure deadly diseases could 
go undiscovered. Cutting defense spending mindlessly can undermine our 
security.
  We need a new transportation bill that puts union workers back out 
there working, rebuilding our roads and our bridges.
  While many economists have labeled the recent downturn a recession, 
for our working families and low-wage earners it has become an economic 
depression. Economic inequality tears at the fabric that makes our 
country great. It turns ``E pluribus unum'' into ``everyone for 
themselves.'' We must raise the minimum wage for the people who are 
struggling to make it into the middle class.
  We need to create an end to the era of climate denial. Climate change 
is irrefutable. It is raising sea levels. It is giving storms more 
power.
  The planet is running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for 
planets.

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We must put in place the preventive care of unleashing a renewable 
energy revolution in wind and solar, in biomass and geothermal, and in 
energy efficiency to avoid the worst, most catastrophic impact of 
climate change on this planet. We are seeing it on an ongoing basis not 
just here in our country but across the planet.
  Our moral duty to future generations calls for us to address climate 
change, but it also is an economic opportunity to create new jobs here 
in our country.
  I will soon introduce legislation that will call for America, by 
2025, to reach a 25-percent target of clean energy and energy 
efficiency improvements. This bill will create jobs as it cuts 
pollution. And I will continue to work to pass climate legislation, as 
I did in the House of Representatives.
  I will also introduce legislation to fix our aging natural gas system 
in Massachusetts and across the country, making it cleaner and more 
efficient. We can use affordable natural gas and clean energy, built 
and delivered through the work of union hands, to power new American 
manufacturing centers. That is a job-creation triple play--generate new 
energy, build new infrastructure, and manufacture new American 
products.
  We must not massively export our natural gas abroad or I fear we will 
continue to export our young men and women to dangerous places all over 
the world and lose opportunities to lower electricity rates here and to 
increase the manufacturing jobs here in the United States.
  Fifty years ago President Kennedy announced the ambitious goal of 
sending an American safely to the Moon. He told us that we would need a 
giant rocket made of new metal alloys, some of which had not yet been 
invented. It would have to be fitted together with precision better 
than the finest watch. It would have to be able to be returned to Earth 
safely at speeds never before approximated by humanity. And it would 
all have to be done in less than 8 years.
  President Kennedy urged us to be bold. I say to this Chamber, it is 
time for us to be bold. In this era of innovation, there are jobs that 
are not yet imagined in fields that haven't been created with 
industries that don't yet exist. We should be bold.
  America watched with pride as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon 
and an American flag was planted as a symbol of our success. In this 
Capitol Building, there is a flag that was brought back from the Moon. 
It testifies to the returns we receive when we invest in American 
ingenuity, when we seek the dawn of discovery, when we invest in our 
people and in our industries, and when we follow the universal American 
values of justice and tolerance and liberty and equality.
  We can use our talents and our tools to help all people everywhere 
build a more peaceful, prosperous future.
  I look forward to working with every Senator in the months and years 
ahead to make the 21st century more educated, more healthy, more 
prosperous, and more fair than the 20th century was. That is our 
challenge. That is our opportunity. But we must do it together.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I extend my appreciation to Senator 
Markey. I had the good fortune of serving in the House of 
Representatives with him. When he decided to run for the Senate, I was 
excited, and I am so happy he is here with us. The speech he just gave 
indicates the work we should be doing. I have always admired him.
  I appreciate very much what he has done for the State of Nevada in 
many different areas. He has been at the forefront of protecting Nevada 
from the ravages of something that could be an environmental disaster--
nuclear waste--and has been someone who has led the country in so many 
different ways in recognizing the dangers of climate change.
  In telecommunications, no one in the last 30 years has done more for 
modernizing our telecommunications system than Ed Markey. So I 
appreciate very much his good work.
  As I sat and listened to this remarkably important speech, I thought 
of the Massachusetts delegation--two new Senators, but what wonderful 
Senators they are, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey. The 
potential they have is so astounding.
  On the news today: This will be the least productive Senate in the 
history of the country. People, such as the Senators from 
Massachusetts, are being prevented from doing good. There is no better 
example of that than the Senator who was on the floor listening to 
Senator Markey, the senior Senator from New Hampshire.
  A bill to make our energy consumption around America more efficient, 
energy efficiency, a bill we should have done a long time ago--we can't 
do it because we have the anarchists running the House of 
Representatives, and they are doing a pretty good job over here too. I 
would say about 40 percent of the Republicans over here are anarchists, 
tea party-driven.
  This Energy bill has five nongermane amendments, most of them dealing 
with health care. The Republicans are obsessed with what is the law of 
the land--ObamaCare. It has been the law for almost 4 years. The U.S. 
Supreme Court has said it is constitutional, but that doesn't take away 
their obsession to try to undercut this legislation, which is going 
into effect in a big way on October 1.
  It is a shame that we are not able to legislate the way we did. 
Everything is a squabble and a fight. I came here more than three 
decades ago having already had a legislative career in the State of 
Nevada, and we have been able to work together to do so many good 
things--until recently.
  We are now waiting to see what the House of Representatives is going 
to do, how absurd what it sends us is going to be. We know it is going 
to be something really strange and weird because the Speaker has to do 
everything he can to try to mold a piece of legislation to meet the 
needs of the tea party, the anarchists. And I say that without any 
equivocation. They do not want government to work on any level--not the 
local level, not the State level, and certainly not here. Any day that 
is a bad day for government is a cheering day for them.
  So I am so impressed with the Senator's speech, but I am distressed 
at what is going on here in the Senate as far as trying to get work 
done. Bipartisanship is a thing of the past. Now all we do is 
``gotcha'' legislation.
  I was given this assurance by many Republicans: Let's do energy. 
Energy efficiency--let's do it. We will work together on a bipartisan 
basis.
  And the first thing out of the box is something that will derail this 
legislation.
  So I am thankful that we have a new Senator who is as talented and as 
good as he is, but I wish his talents could be better put to work here 
in the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I am proud to come to the floor today to 
welcome my colleague Ed Markey on giving his first speech on the floor 
of the Senate.
  Long before I became a U.S. Senator, Ed Markey was in the House of 
Representatives, became the dean of the Massachusetts delegation, and 
has been out there working for the families of Massachusetts and the 
families of this country. He has been a leader on issues ranging from 
energy and the environment to technology and telecommunications, and he 
knows how to get things done. That is very inspiring.
  I just wanted to come by today to listen to his first speech, 
congratulate him on his first speech, and to say how much I am looking 
forward to working with my partner Ed Markey in the Senate. We are 
going to do our best to get something done.
  Congratulations.
  Mr. MARKEY. I thank the Senator.

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