Markey: ‘This is our era. This is our fight’

Aug. 10, 2017 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Sen. Edward Markey provided a progress report on the events in the nation’s capitol as well as hearing from constituents at the town hall meeting on Aug. 7 in Springfield. Reminder Publications photo by G. Michael Dobbs



SPRINGFIELD – There was a stark contrast in the town hall meeting conducted by Sen. Edward Markey at the Forest Park Middle School on Aug. 7 and the one conducted earlier this year by his colleague Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Markey spoke briefly and then answered questions from the audience, but unlike Warren he didn’t cut the Q&A portion of the program short to give the audience the opportunity for taking selfies with a senator with a national constituency.

Instead at 8 p.m., an hour and half after he started, Markey looked at the line of people who remained and said he would extend the meeting another 15 minutes. He then decided to stay until the present line of constituents had spoken. Only after the close of the meeting did he meet individually with people and take the obligatory selfie.

The difference in the two Massachusetts senators seemed to be that one is a national celebrity and one is not. Markey showed not only a great command of the answers he needed to address issues, but related strongly to the issues facing the working class by speaking about his own upbringing.

At times the town hall meeting was an information session about what is happening in the Senate and at times it was an anti-Trump rally. The event was well attended by several hundred people.

 Markey called the Republican health insurance bill a “grievous wound” would have affected the 16,000 medical jobs in Springfield. If it had passed, Markey said, there would have been “a significant adverse impact if Medicare was slashed” as hospitals rely on those payments.

In the wake of the defeat of the bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act, Markey said, “We must now come together. We must find a way to work together.” He noted Sen. Lamar Alexander, chair of the Senate Health Committee has reached out to Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the committee, to figure out a way to fund the insurance exchanges to prevent an erosion of the current availability of health insurance exchanges.

Markey said he is becoming more optimistic that more Republicans seem to be distancing themselves from the policies of the president. He said on the issue of the Trump Administration wanting to eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy that allows undocumented people who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has said he would work to prevent that from happening.

Still despite the hope for collaboration, Markey said that programs and laws, some of which date back to the New Deal and are part of American society, are being threatened by the president.

“This is our era. This is our fight,” he said. “We’re going to protect every one of those laws.”

When asked why Democrats are “sitting quietly” as the Trump Administration makes changes in environmental policy, Markey was quick to note the Administration was making steps in environmental policy through the departments of Energy and The Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, a way to go around Congress. He said many of those changes would be fought through legal action.

Many of the people who stood in line for the opportunity to speak at the meeting didn’t exactly have a question, but rather lobbied on behalf of an issue. There was a young woman who spoke about the need to support legislation to assist in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, something Markey’s mother had and an issue for which he has advocated.

Two men from India spoke about the backlog in the process of obtaining a “Green Card” to be a resident alien. Both men came to the country to obtain an advanced degree and both are working, but are concerned about a delay estimated to be in years for the permanent residency status. Markey said part of the problem is there are caps placed on “Green Card” applicants based on country of origin and he said there is a bill he supports that would eliminate the caps and placed requests on a first come-first served basis.

Rev. Tom Gerstenlauer of the Second Congregational Church in Springfield asked the senator to intercede on the behalf of the church, which is in the process of becoming a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Gerstenlauer asked Markey if he could explain to Mayor Domenic Sarno the existence of the sanctuary at the church would not threaten federal funding to the city of Springfield, which is not considered a “sanctuary city.”

Markey said he would.

The last group of people to speak identified themselves as having disabilities and one said, “Trump is trying to stop the programs that allow us to live and give us a place to work everyday.”

Markey said the proposed health insurance bill that was defeated would have been the “single biggest step in rolling back Medicaid rights for the disabled in the past 50 years.”

He said he would fight for their rights.

Share this: