CQ HOMELAND SECURITY LOCAL RESPONSE

Players: Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey Raises the Alarm About Modern-Day Threats
By Martin Edwin Andersen, CQ Staff May 26, 2004

To friends and supporters, Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democratic member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, is something of a modern-day legislative Paul Revere. The Revolutionary War heros famed midnight ride took him through Lexington and Medford, Mass. two communities in Markeys 7th Congressional District sounding the alarm about an approaching enemy. Markey, observers say, has made a name for himself raising alarms about modern-day threats to national security. Ed exemplifies the need to regain our sense of urgency that we all had after Sept. 11 regarding the need to make America safer, Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said in a telephone interview. Markey, Turner added, is one of the most effective and talented members that we have. He is relentless in pushing his causes, [but] he also has an excellent relationship with members on both sides of the aisle. Known for a wry, at times lacerating, at times self-deprecating wit, the 57-year-old Markey has served 28 years in the House, the longest of any of Massachusetts current representatives. Those who know him, however, say the Jesuit-trained son of a milk truck driver has not lost the passion or sense of purpose that first settled on him in 1956, when a fellow Irish Catholic from Boston Sen. John F. Kennedy battled for the Democratic vice presidential nomination. I watched the 56 Democratic Convention in its entirety, Markey recalled in an interview at a Starbucks coffee shop near Chevy Chase Circle in Upper Northwest Washington, D.C., last week.
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It was fascinating that, while [Sen. Estes] Kefauver [of Tennessee] ultimately won the nomination, Sen. Kennedy was also running against A.B. Happy Chandler, the former baseball commissioner and the governor of Kentucky. The fight between the crime-busting Kefauver, war hero Kennedy and Chandler, Markey remembered, was also of great interest to me, since the Red Sox were my other raging passion. Solid Record Although Markey, the third ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the longest-serving member on the House Resources Committee, has a solid record of accomplishment on a variety of issues ranging from consumer protection to technology, lately he has been making his mark in the homeland security arena no small feat for a minority member of the often bitterly divided legislature. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Markey a longtime foe of nuclear power plants successfully fought for the distribution by the federal government of potassium iodide as an antidote for the radiation sickness that could stem from a successful terrorist attack on an atomic power facility. Markey says the measure is one of his proudest legislative achievements. More recently, Markey has been at the forefront of efforts to prevent the Bush administration request to rechannel $40 million from a program intended to help cities prepare to respond to weapons of mass destruction attacks. Markey also led ultimately successful efforts to get the federal government to admit that Algerian-flagged liquefied natural gas tankers docking in Everett, Mass., may have been used by Algerian nationals linked to those indicted for the Millennium Bombing Plot. Among other better-known Markey initiatives is his advocacy of stricter inspection for all cargo on passenger planes and, last year, his successful campaign to persuade the Republican-controlled House to approve legislation that would have tightened nuclear power plant and air cargo shipping security rules legislative provisions that later were removed during conference negotiations with the Senate. Markey, said Jon Safley, president of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, is one of a handful of legislators who really have a great grip on airline security issues.
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Hes just such a good friend to us, Safley added in a telephone interview. The door has always been open. Markey recalled that on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he was watching ABC televisions Good Morning America while preparing to leave his house when anchor Diane Sawyer announced that something had happened at the World Trade Center. Like most other Americans, he sat transfixed before the television, pulling himself away after the second plane hit to call his Washington, D.C., office to tell his staff to leave the building. The realization that some of the hijackers had flown out of Logan International Airport was a terrible thing for my hometown of greater Boston, he remembered. I wasnt aware that box cutters were allowed as a matter of policy to be carried onto all planes, he added. I dont think anyone was. It was shocking to know that Logan airport had been selected by al Qaeda, but it was even more shocking to know that they could have selected any other airport in the United States, Markey added, his voice seeming to reflect a bit of hurt hometown pride. Collective Weight As the Houses 10th ranking Democrat in seniority, Markey says he fears that Congress has not pulled its collective weight in providing oversight on homeland security issues. Unlike some of his colleagues, Markey does not blame either chambers committee structure. I think the problem is the unwillingness to use the powers of Congress to force the institutions to change, he said. The hearings the 9/11 Commission is having should be a model for how Congress should have been conducting itself over the last three years but hasnt. Markey says his office is giving policy suggestions on homeland security issues to the presidential campaign of fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry. And he says that either Turner, the Homeland Security Committees ranking member, or William J. Bratton, chief of police in Los Angeles and former Boston police commissioner, would make good choices to replace Tom Ridge at the helm of the
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Department of Homeland Security in a Kerry administration. Markey says he believes his former House colleague Ridge is limited by ideological constraints that he says the Bush administration has placed on the development of a comprehensive homeland security plan. Not only is the administration reluctant to impose rules on private sector corporations that would enhance public safety, Markey charged, it views heroic public employees as inherent problems rather than as people who have dedicated their lives to protecting the public. Rather than building them up, their first thought was finding ways to strip them of their full union protections, Markey said of the attempt by Ridge to redesign DHS personnel regulations. At the same time, the Bush administration shortchanges public sector investments in homeland security protections. The administration has given a blank check in fighting of the war against terrorists in Iraq, Markey claimed, but here at home, where al Qaeda did successfully attack and kill 3,000 people, the Bush administration continues to nickel and dime the public commitment to homeland security. Asked whether he thought it was easy for the Democrats to demand more, while the administration had to deal with a finite amount of resources and competing policy imperatives that complicated their efforts, Markey invoked St. Augustine of Hippo. Oh Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet, Markey said, quoting the African Christian saint who lived life in another time of great turmoil and uncertainty. The Republicans contend that there is not enough money for additional homeland security investment, on the same day that they are trying to make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of the people in America, Markey charged. The first decision should be, how much homeland security do we need? Whats left over is the surplus. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said that DHS would not respond to Markeys charges. The Back Story Markey was born on July 11, 1946, in Malden, Mass., and his early life, he said, centered around realizing his limitations on the playing field.
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I was an all-around mediocre athlete, he recalled. Shakespeare once said that the will is infinite, but the execution is confined and that would describe my athletic life. My life was making the Malden Catholic basketball team and being a respectable bench warmer on that team, he added, laughing. Not surprisingly, Markey says his childhood hero was John Kennedy. He was one of us he was Irish, he was Catholic, he was from Boston, Markey said. Al Smith [the Catholic governor of New York and a much-maligned and unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee in 1928] had lost 32 years before, which would only be 1972 if we were today going back, Markey added. It didnt seem like that long ago to many people. Kennedy, Markey added, was carrying the hopes and dreams of not just the Irish, but the Italians, the Poles, the African Americans, Hispanics, Jewish Americans everyone felt that he was opening the door to full American citizenship and he was one of my own, from Boston. Markeys first campaign experience was working for Sen. Eugene McCarthys unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1968. Four years later, in 1972, he was swept in to the Massachusetts State House on the [Sen. George] McGovern landslide referring to the 1972 presidential candidates failure to win any state but Massachusetts. Very few people can say that, Markey points out. Markey has been married for 16 years to Susan Blumenthal, a public health service doctor. He said he recently finished reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis and is currently finishing Bob Woodwards Plan of Attack. Asked what else he does with his off time, Markey noted that former Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan was once asked, while he was still playing ball in 1961, what it was he was doing at that stage of his career.
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Sullivan, Markey said, responded that he was in the twilight of a mediocre career. I am in the twilight actually almost in the near darkness of my continuing mediocre basketball career, Markey said. I still play basketball in the House gym. A friend later noted that Markey was being overly modest. Until recently, the friend said, he held the record in the House gym for free throws. Martin Edwin Andersen can be reached via eandersen@cq.com
Source: CQ Homeland Security 2004 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved