Ed Markey & Joe Kennedy III Answer 10 Questions

Our opioid epidemic will only be solved with treatment, not incarceration. We must prioritize treatment, community support, and education in order to begin to solve our opioid crisis. In January 2018, I introduced legislation that would expand access to medication-assisted therapies for opioid addiction, along with a bill that requires the federal government to set tangible benchmarks for how it is addressing the opioid crisis. I introduced the CREATE Opportunities Act to create a new grant program for state and local governments to provide medication assisted treatment (MAT) in their correctional facilities. I know that having access to treatment in the days after release from incarceration is critical in a person’s recovery efforts. That is why I introduced legislation that would prohibit states from terminating an inmate’s Medicaid coverage while they are incarcerated, a practice that often prevents individuals from accessing treatment in the critical days and weeks after release. We also have to tackle the source of the problem – stopping illicit fentanyl from crossing United States borders in the first place. That’s why I was able to pass his groundbreaking legislation, the INTERDICT Act, which equipped U.S. Customs and Border Protection with hi-tech scanning devices to detect synthetic opioids.

Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve led the national fight to improve our mental health care and substance use disorder treatment systems. As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage our communities in Boston and across Massachusetts, I’ve made it a priority to show up, listen to the needs of those most impacted, and take what I learn back to Washington to fight for better policies. One of the very first stops I made after I got into this Senate race was touring Mass & Cass in the South End, to learn about the need for federal investment in drug treatment centers and safe injection sites in urban communities, which have been overlooked when it comes to addressing the opioid crisis.

Back in Washington, I recently unveiled a plan to achieve universal behavioral health care, including deep reforms to and historic investments in substance use disorder treatment. I’ve advocated for increased funding for community health centers, substance use treatment centers, and safe injection sites, and I’ve authored legislation increasing reimbursement rates for addiction treatment. I’ve fought to address inequities in addiction treatment by ensuring that treatment options are not denied to patients suffering from substance use disorders. And I’ve co-sponsored the CARE Act, legislation to invest $100 billion in federal funding over the next ten years in states and communities to support the whole continuum of care — from early intervention for those at risk for addiction, to harm reduction for those struggling with addiction, to long-term support services for those in recovery. This legislation would also ensure access to mental health services and help provide critical wraparound services, like housing support and medical transportation, for those who need them. In Massachusetts, I worked with the local community to establish Bristol County as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking area, securing critical federal resources to help combat the opioid epidemic.

We know that there are disparities in the health outcomes in the LGBT+ and communities of color. I believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and that a strong health care system is the foundation for a robust economy. I am a fierce advocate for funding for medical research and guaranteeing every American affordable, quality care and services.

As an original co-sponsor of Senator Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act of 2017, I
have fought to create a federal single-payer health care system to provide
comprehensive health insurance to every American.

I believe universal, high-quality, affordable health care is a basic human right, not a privilege. I’m a proud champion for Medicare for All, which I believe is the strongest roadmap to an equitable system where every American has access to the care they need, when they need it.

Long before COVID-19 exposed deep inequities in our health care system, I’ve been leading efforts in Congress to root out the racism, discrimination, and prejudice that is woven throughout our health care system. I’m the author of the Do No Harm Act, which would amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ensure that religious freedom cannot be used to justify denying civil rights, including for LGBTQI+ patients seeking access to health care. I’ve tirelessly fought discrimination against transgender patients seeking care, patients with pre-existing conditions, and patients seeking access to mental health and addiction care. As a founding member of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, I’ve fought against black maternal mortality and I’ve authored the Moms MATTER Act to expand access to behavioral health care for new moms, specifically moms of color.

As we work to transition to a single-payer system, I’m fighting to make health care more affordable, accessible, and equitable immediately — in particular to take on the disparate health outcomes in communities of color and the LGBTQ+ community. I advocate for increased funding to community health centers, substance use treatment centers, and to expand Medicaid coverage, all of which provide crucial care to communities with disproportionately negative health outcomes, including communities of color and the trans community. I’ve passed legislation to close loopholes exploited by pharmaceutical companies at the expense of patients; I’ve introduced legislation to guarantee universal mental health care; and I’ve led efforts to enhance transparency in behavioral health coverage.

I know the importance of investing in public housing. That is why I stood in South Boston with U.S. Representatives Stephen Lynch and Hakeem Jeffries to call for a $70 billion investment in our public housing system over the next five years.

We must protect our existing rental assistance programs. I have and will continue to
support funding for the Housing Choice Vouchers and Project-Based Rental Assistance Programs.

I also know we must approach our housing crisis with bold solutions. I support Elizabeth Warren’s plan to invest $500 billion in affordable housing. The plan will leverage federal investments to build up to 3.2 million new housing units for lower-income and middle-class families, reduce rental costs by 10% over the next ten years, and incentivize localities to increase their housing supply, all while creating 1.5 million new jobs.

We must also oppose Trump’s attempts to cut affordable housing programs. I voted
against the confirmation of Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) and fought against Trump’s proposed budget that would cut HUD’s funding by $8.6 billion, 16.4% less than it was funded this year. Trump’s budget would completely eliminate crucial programs, like CDBG funding and the HOME Investment Partnerships, which are critical for cities that rely on this funding to grow affordable housing stock.

As a former legal aid volunteer in the Boston Housing Court in the midst of a foreclosure crisis, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating effects of displacement and housing instability. As soon as the COVID-19 crisis hit, I called for a nationwide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. When the statewide moratorium in Massachusetts was set to expire, putting vulnerable communities in East Boston and around the Commonwealth at risk of displacement, I called on Governor Baker to extend the moratorium and I have joined with my colleagues in the House to co-sponsor the Protecting Renters from Evictions and Fees Act, to extend and expand a nationwide moratorium and prohibit fees, fines, and extra charges due to nonpayment of rent.

But even a moratorium does not cancel missed rent or mortgage payments — and we cannot risk displacement for thousands of vulnerable families across our
Commonwealth the minute the moratorium expires. That is why I voted for $100 billion in emergency rental assistance, as well as a $75 billion relief fund for homeowners, in the HEROES Act that passed the House. I called on Congressional leadership to provide $2.5 billion in funding for Legal Services Corporation and civil legal aid organizations in the next COVID-19 emergency funding package, in order to ensure assistance to counsel for low-income families at risk of eviction. I’m also proud to have led my colleagues in introducing the most progressive expansions of legal counsel in history — a Civil Gideon, to make sure no one is denied counsel in our justice system, including in eviction cases. I will fight to pass this expansion and ensure that we protect vulnerable families in Boston and across Massachusetts from displacement.

I’m proud to co-sponsor legislation, the American Housing and Mobility Act, which directly takes on historic racial discrimination and segregation in our housing system and will help reduce and prevent housing segregation in communities like Boston. The bill offers down payment assistance grants to first-time homebuyers who live in formerly redlined and segregated neighborhoods, promotes mobility by strengthening anti-discrimination laws and improving the housing voucher program, holds financial institutions accountable for providing access to credit for all Americans, and supports families whose housing wealth was destroyed by the financial crisis. It also controls the cost of renting or buying a home by infusing federal funds into our housing supply, so that we can build millions of new housing units, bring down costs, and create millions of new jobs. Beyond this legislation, we also must address state and local zoning rules that drive up construction costs and exacerbate segregation. Finally, I’ve fought to prohibit all forms of housing discrimination by strengthening and fully enforcing our fair housing laws. I will be proud to champion these reforms in the Senate.

For far too long, systemic racism in policies that touch every aspect of our lives has widened the equity gap between white and families of color in America. We need to change this. I have spent my political career working to address the health, environmental, economic and housing justice issues that disproportionately affect communities of color.

I co sponsored Senator Booker’s Commission to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African-Americans Act, the only reparations bill in the Senate, which
establishes a commission to make recommendations of reparations proposals. It is
impossible to craft an American future that is fair and just without openly acknowledging and confronting the generational inequalities caused by slavery and a history of systemic racism in the United States. Reparations are the first step acknowledging the wrongs and repairing the harm done to African Americans.

African Americans face vast inequalities when it comes to health outcomes and health
care access, compared to white Americans. I believe that healthcare is a human right,
which is why he is a proud original co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2017, which would ensure that every American has comprehensive health insurance.

Black and Native women are approximately three times more likely to die from
pregnancy-related issues than white women, in large part due to the despicable racial
bias endemic in the U.S. healthcare system. That is unconscionable, and I am fighting
tooth and nail to end this dangerous manifestation of racial injustice and provide quality health care for all. That is why I supported the Mothers and Offspring Mortality and Morbidity Awareness Act (MOMMAS) and the Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies Act (Maternal CARE Act), which would provide grants for implicit bias training for obstetricians and gynecologists and for pregnancy medical homes.

Families across the United States face a childcare crisis, but African American families
are especially hard hit by the rising cost of child care and limited options for working
families. Today, three in four African American children under age 6 have all residential parents in the workforce. That’s why I support Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, which would provide free or affordable, high-quality child care and early learning options to every American. I also support Senator Patty Murray’s Child Care for Working Families Act, which would provide free childcare to families under 75 percent of the state median income, and ensure no family under 150 percent of the state median income pays more than seven percent of their income on child care.

I work every day in Congress to be an ally to communities of color. I know that generations of discrimination and disenfranchisement have led to structural barriers for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color across the country. In each and every one of the systems we have built — housing, education, transportation, health care, criminal justice, our economy, and more — systemic racism is embedded in its fabric. Government must proactively and intentionally root out racism and pursue justice through all of our public policy decisions, and I’m committed to putting equity at the center of my work in the Senate. I believe that must begin with confronting our history and acknowledging the role our government has played — and continues to play — in actively enforcing racial discrimination, which is why I’m a proud co-sponsor of legislation to pursue reparations.

In restructuring our economy to put workers and families first, it’s absolutely crucial that we level out wage and wealth disparities by race. I’m fighting for policies to wipe out the vast majority of existing student debt, which will help students of color who are disproportionately burdened and help close the persistent racial wealth gap. I’ve co-sponsored legislation to address racial discrimination in housing, by giving grants to first-time homebuyers who live in formerly redlined and segregated neighborhoods. I’ve advocated for increasing the portion of federal contracts reserved for minority-owned small businesses and ensuring that federal investments in communities of color are designed to build wealth, create jobs, and support locally-owned businesses. In health care, I’ll continue to prioritize racial disparities in access to coverage and care, particularly when it comes to maternal health and mortality. And I’ll fight to completely overhaul our criminal justice system to end mass incarceration, police brutality, and racial discrimination and rebuild a better system that actually keeps our communities safe and whole.

To seek justice for Indigenous communities, I’ll advocate for measures to protect and expand their civil rights, including fighting land dispossession, structural racism, concentrated poverty, violence, and public health epidemics, while also championing the sovereign rights of Native nations.

In my personal life, I recognize that I was born into a tremendous amount of privilege. I’m committed to using that privilege to do good, to promote anti-racism, and to amplify the BIPOC voices that have for too long been looked over, locked out, and left behind. Outside of my work in Congress, I’ve spent my entire career working to promote racial justice — from fighting to protect families from eviction in the Boston Housing Courts to running a rights empowerment workshop for at-risk youth in Boston Public Schools. I also recognize that my education — on issues of racism, representation, and identity — is a lifelong process. I’ll continue to listen, to learn, and to fight every day to build a better, more equitable, anti-racist society.

Police are seven times more likely to use force against black individuals than against people of other races. Following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many other Black lives at the hands of law enforcement, I introduced legislation I introduced the Eliminating Qualified Immunity Act with my colleagues Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The companion legislation was introduced in the House by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Congressman Justin Amash.

This legislation abolishes qualified immunity, a judge-made doctrine that protects law
enforcement officers from being sued in their personal capacity and being held
personally liable for their abuses. For decades, law enforcement has relied on qualified immunity to shield officers from accountability for instances of police brutality and excessive force. I know that it is time to hold our law enforcement accountable.

We need bold, systemic reforms to end mass incarceration and transform our system into one that prioritizes rehabilitation and healing over punishment and actually makes our communities safer. Our current systems are not only failing to meet their purpose, but they’re also built on a legacy of systemic racism that disproportionately harms communities of color. I believe it’s crucial that we reimagine every piece of the system — from what we criminalize in the first place, to how we enforce the law, to treating incarceration as a last resort, to how we treat people in prisons, to how we rehabilitate and assist people re-entering society.
We have to start by recognizing the failures and consequences of the War on Drugs, particularly the devastating effects on communities of color — that’s why I’m pushing for legislation to legalize marijuana and expunge past criminal records. At the same time, we have to decriminalize poverty, mental illness, and homelessness. I support ending cash bail, strengthening public defender services, and expanding access to legal counsel, because we shouldn’t detain people based on a lack of financial resources alone. We need to reform our sentencing policies, including a dramatic reduction in the use of mandatory minimums to ensure judicial discretion. We need to fight for more humane conditions in prisons, banning private and for-profit prisons and charging for essential services like phone calls, while ensuring that prison conditions actually facilitate the goal of rehabilitation. And we need to improve access to crucial services that help formerly incarcerated people re-enter society after serving their time, including public housing, employment, transportation, education, and voting rights.
There is absolutely no question that we have to fundamentally reform the way we police in this country — and that includes how we fund law enforcement. I believe we need to divert overinvestments in policing toward community empowerment initiatives, like affordable housing, job training, education, mental health counseling, substance use treatment, and other community-led programs. I also support legislation to drastically reform policing practices, including banning chokeholds, ending qualified immunity, lowering the standard of proof in civil rights investigations into police misconduct, and independent investigations into police harassment, brutality, or killings.

Our gun violence epidemic has gone too far. Too many lives have been lost and it’s time for our elected leaders to step up and take action.

I am committed to ensuring the safety and security of our family, friends, and neighbors in Massachusetts, advocating for common sense gun legislation to prevent violence in our communities. I am a fierce advocate for universal background checks, banning assault weapons, making gun trafficking a federal crime, prohibiting high capacity ammunition magazines, and closing the loopholes surrounding the creation of undetectable, plastic guns.

In December, I secured $25 million in CDC funding to go toward gun violence research. This is an important first step in helping us address an epidemic that takes 100 lives every single day.

Massachusetts has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation, and some of the
most comprehensive gun licensing laws in the country. With that in mind, I introduced
the Making America Safe and Secure (MASS) Act, legislation that would incentivize
states to adopt gun-licensing standards similar to those proven effective in
Massachusetts.

In 1994, I identified a deadly loophole enabling cheap Chinese semi-automatic assault
weapons to flood into the United States. I urged President Clinton to place an
emergency moratorium on the importation of these military style assault weapons from China, including the SKS, MAK-90 and other similar weapons.

I also recognize the threat of 3D technology when it comes to firearm manufacturing.
That’s why he introduced legislation to prohibit the online distribution of blueprints and instructions that allow for the three dimensional printing of firearms. The production of plastic 3D guns and the increasing availability of 3D printers means that unlicensed individuals, including domestic abusers, have the ability to manufacture their own weapons.

I am committed to fighting for comprehensive gun legislation in the United States
Senate so that no child has to walk the halls of their school and fear for their life.

Our nation’s gun violence epidemic is a national public health emergency. I’ve called for an urgent national crisis response not just to the horrifying regularity of mass shootings, but to the everyday impacts and trauma of violence in neighborhoods across the country.

I advocate for common-send reforms to reduce gun violence, supported by a majority of Americans. That includes raising the standards for responsible gun ownership through robust background checks, a national licensing system, raising the age limit for gun purchases to 21, and closing the gun show loophole. I’ve fought to hold gun manufacturers and distributors accountable for gun violence, standing up in Congress against gun lobby efforts to limit their liability. In order to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands, I’ve introduced legislation to encourage states to adopt strict licensing requirements for both gun dealers and owners.

I support banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, because weapons of war have no place on our streets. I’ve advocated in Congress for investments in gun violence research, suicide prevention efforts, and mental health programs to help those who need them. I’m a vocal proponent of Red Flag laws that disarm gun owners who pose a threat to themselves or others, as well as initiatives to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and those convicted of hate crimes.

In the Trump administration, women’s rights are under attack. From sexual assault, to attacks on Planned Parenthood, to unequal pay, it’s more important now than ever to fight for gender equality. I realize that fighting for women’s rights means fighting for health, for equality, and for dignity.

We have to guarantee that women are being paid the same wage for the same work.
We can no longer abide by a system where a black woman makes 63 cents to a white
man’s dollar and where Latinas make 53 cents to a white man’s dollar. If we closed the
gender pay gap, we would cut poverty amongst working women and their families by
more than half and add $513 billion to our national economy. I am a co-sponsor of the
Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and supports the Paycheck Fairness Act to eliminate the
gender pay gap and end workplace discrimination.

I will continue to fight for gender equality on the floor of the Senate and stand up to the conservative interests who are looking to take us back in time.

I’m a proud ally in the fight for full and equal rights of people of all genders. To address the wage gap and workplace discrimination, I’m a proud co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. This legislation would close punishing pay gaps by eliminating loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, helping to break harmful patterns of pay discrimination, particularly against women of color, and strengthening workplace protections for all women. It protects against retaliation for discussing salaries with colleagues; prohibits employers from requiring salary history during the hiring process; requires employers to address any existing pay disparities; creates a negotiation skills training program for women and girls; and makes it easier to file sex-based discrimination claims. I’m also proud to support the Equal Rights Amendment, which would finally guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.

Beyond addressing pay disparity alone, I’m committed to fighting the economic injustices that disproportionately affect women trying to advance their careers. I’m fighting for paid family leave and universal child care, two policies that would lift the burden of disparate caregiving expectations women face in our society, allowing all families to make their own decisions about how to meet their family and child care needs.