FAS Public Interest Report

Remarks by Edward Markey (D-MA) at the FAS 60th Anniversary symposium at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Wednesday November 30, 2005.

Thank you very much, Henry, for inviting me here, and to Tara and to Ivan, who is the affirmative action, non-Irish scientist at the table, which is a new phenomenon by the way. And I thank all of you for inviting me here today. It’s a great honor to participate in this incredible event. The Federation of American Scientists, right from the dawn of the nuclear age, has played a very important role in having our country and the world debate this tension that exists in a technology, which on the one hand has the capacity to provide enormous technological benefits across the whole of society and on the other, simultaneously, the capacity for great destruction.

My introduction to this issue actually began when Ted Sorenson was President Kennedy’s right-hand man in the White House. I was a sophomore at Malden Catholic High School in 1962. And like any other overachieving sophomore in high school, I had to enter the science fair, even though I had no scientific ability at all.

Now at this time, Linus Pauling was making an argument that was resonating throughout the world, but I was unaware of it.

The overachieving sophomore, having no idea as to what should be the subject of his science project, turned to his father — who drove a truck for the Hood Milk Company in Boston — and said “Pop, what should I do my science fair project on?”
He said, “I have no idea.”

As a graduate of Lawrence Vocational High School, he had no idea about what it should be. So, he said, “Why don’t I take you over to the Hood Milk Company Laboratories?”

I spent an afternoon over there as the scientists in this huge laboratory in Charlestown, Massachusetts, were trying to figure out how, in addition to homogenization and pasteurization, they were going to add a third process – strontium-90 removal.

As the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were detonating these nuclear weapons, the clouds were capturing the fallout, carrying it hundreds of thousands of miles; and when it rained, it brought the particulates down into the soil, into the grass. The cows were eating the grass and ultimately, the children were drinking the milk.

Linus Pauling felt this was a huge public health crisis. And the Hood Milk Company was responding to it.

Well, I brought home their entire project and showed it to my father, who as a graduate of Lawrence Vocational High School, had enormous ability to construct things. The dirty little secret of all these science fair projects is that no one actually builds them alone. Your mother or father are helping you when you’re a kid. So in the basement, on the basement, on the last night, until 4:00 in the morning, my father was constructing this three-tiered strontium-90 removal system with tin cans and pipes along with a demonstration as to how the various acids were going to have this ion exchange that would result in the milk ultimately being drinkable as it came out of the final can.

So I took my project, on a cart, down to Malden Catholic, and set it up. They used to invite nine former graduates of Malden Catholic, who had gone on to MIT or RPI or someplace, to act as three panels of judges. You would explain your project to each group of three and whoever had the highest cumulative grade would win.

I was a sophomore taking biology and I was competing against all the juniors who were already taking chemistry. So, it was me alone against all the juniors. I had no scientific ability at all. I explained my strontium-90 removal process and how it’s the key to nuclear non-proliferation in the future; that if we’re not going to have a treaty, then we’re going to have to have a process to protect children against this public health disaster.

The next day on the front page of the Malden Evening News, there’s a picture of me explaining the nuclear strontium-90 removal process to my twin brothers, who are one year younger than me. My mother didn’t get married until she was 39 and had me and my brothers all in the one year. Irish triplets.

So, there’s my picture explaining it to my two freshman brothers. Why? Because twins are always an incrediblyattractive photographic opportunity.

So my father comes home. He’s sitting there in his t-shirt, opens up the Malden Evening News and says:

“Eddie. This is unbelievable. You won the contest, but you put it up backwards. You had the whole thing backwards. You explained this to nine PhDs. Eddie, you shouldn’t be a scientist, you should be a politician.”

So that’s what I’ve done for my whole career.

And I’m not saying, Ted, that my science fair project was the key, but twelve months later, President Kennedy signed the atmospheric test ban treaty with President Krushchev. But, I like to think that President Kennedy and Linus Pauling provided the inspiration that interested young people in these issues, in terms of how to use technology to solve very complex problems.

Today, as we know, this President not only does not know the name of his science advisor, but could not pick him out of a line-up of two people. And that is not a good situation for our country. From climate change to arsenic in water, and a whole litany of other issues, at the top of the list should be nuclear nonproliferation.

Three years ago I had the opportunity to identify a special program in the defense appropriations bill to build a new nuclear bunker buster; a nuclear weapon which could be used in urban areas to accomplish military goals. It had already come out of the defense committee. No one had tried to stop it there. There were no amendments against it. And in the same way that I introduced the nuclear freeze amendment in 1982, along with Senator Kennedy to inspire national debate, I felt that it was important to do so again.

Jeff Duncan, who is my legislative staff director, who is sitting over here, drafted the amendment for me. He has been with me for 20 years. Nicole Gastperini, who is also here, is my science fellow for this year and she is working on these issues. The first year I got 172 votes on the House floor, and that was with no debate, just with FAS and a couple other groups helping to educate people on the issue, but with no other lobbying involved. It was just this quick public education campaign.

The next year, I offered it again and I got 199 votes. Then last year, it went up to 204 votes, but needed 218 to win. At that point David Hobson who is a republican from Ohio joined in. He was a key person. Jack Murtha joined in. He was also a key person. As a result, the money for the nuclear bunker buster has now been taken out of the federal budget. That is a victory for public education.

In other words, all issues go through three phases — education, activation, and implementation. You can’t short circuit any one of these phases, but the education phase comes out of the scientific community; when we’re talking about all of these concerns. Ultimately, the public accepts the wisdom of what scientists have developed as an argument for the right path to take in a particular area.

And no matter how hard politicians might fight it, ultimately that public consensus wins.

So for me, this is a great honor because this is now my 30th year in the United States Congress. Which is shocking. I am here largely because of the inspiration of John F. Kennedy and Ted Sorensen in the White House telling me as a boy that politics is the noblest profession — if you can animate it with the wisdom of the new frontier, of new issues, so that you accept the change which has to take place in order to benefit all of society.

Actually, I went down to Nicaragua with Ted Sorensen in 1983. He and I traveled there together at the height of the Sandanistas’ power. As I was leaving I said to Ted, “I’m going up to Boston and there will be eight cameras waiting for me as I return from Nicaragua. They’re going to want to know why their Congressman was in Nicaragua.” And he said, “Just say to them: ‘Better their Congressman than their son.’”

This guy is just so wonderful, as are all of you. It is a great honor for me to be here. My one challenge to you is this:

We now have an issue of a sale of nuclear materials to India. India has not signed the non-proliferation treaty. It does not abide by the nuclear suppliers group conventions. And yet the President wants to sell nuclear materials to India. I can only tell you that it makes fools out of the other countries that

And yet the President wants to sell nuclear materials to India. I can only tell you that it makes fools out of the other countries that have all signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. What is the point?

You cannot preach temperance from a barstool.

Either the United States is going to abide by international law or not allow other countries to circumvent it because of a perceived near term need on the part of this administration to counterbalance China. That was the same mistake that President Carter made in 1980 when he sold 50 tons of uranium to India. It drove the Pakistanis crazy. They said that if their people had to eat grass and leaves for a generation they, too, would have a nuclear weapon. If we want to be the world’s moral and political leader, then we need to maintain our own standards.

So I’m going to introduce a bill to block the sale of uranium, of nuclear materials, to India. They only produce 1% of their electricity from nuclear. That is not why they want it. 70% of their electricity is coal.

If the President was going to make a huge scientific announcement with India, it should have been a multi-billion dollar scientific exchange to give the Indians the most modern technology to mine and burn their coal as cleanly as possible. Because mostly that’s what they’re going to do for the next hundred years.

Instead, he cuts a deal on nuclear. Which is what the Indians want, unfortunately, in my opinion, to advance their nuclear program. But the repercussions are going to be profound around the whole world.

So we need your leadership on this issue. We need your guidance. And I can tell you that you continue to inspire me.

There is no known instance of an Irishman from Boston voluntarily leaving the United States Congress. I’m staying forever and I need your help.

It’s an honor to be here at this great gathering. Thank you so so much.

FAS