Edward Markey

Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act of 2025

This bill reauthorizes through FY2030 and expands the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program to include separate grants to rescue sea turtles. The grants must be used for

• the recovery, care, or treatment of sick, injured, or entangled sea turtles;

• responses to rescue stranded sea turtles;

• the collection of data and samples from living or dead stranded sea turtles for scientific research or health assessments;

• facility operating costs that are directly related to activities to assist sea turtles; or

• development of stranding network capacity where facilities do not exist or are sparse.

In addition, the bill establishes the Sea Turtle Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Rapid Response Fund.

This resolution condemns Russia's nuclear escalatory rhetoric and implied threats on the potential use of nuclear weapons in the context of its invasion of Ukraine. The resolution also (1) condemns Russia's purported suspension of participation in the New START Treaty, (2) emphasizes the value of arms control agreements between the United States and Russia, and (3) calls on the administration to continue pursuing nuclear arms control and risk reduction with Russia and China.

AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a rule requiring AM radio capabilities to be standard in all new passenger vehicles. (AM radio is often used to deliver emergency alerts and news and entertainment programming; some newer vehicles do not include AM equipment.)

Specifically, this bill applies to passenger vehicles (1) manufactured in the United States for sale in the United States, imported into the United States, or shipped in interstate commerce; and (2) manufactured after the rule's effective date. The rule must require all such vehicles to have devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by AM stations or digital audio AM stations installed as standard equipment and made easily accessible to drivers.

Prior to the rule's effective date, manufacturers that do not include devices that can access AM radio as standard equipment (1) must inform purchasers of this fact through clear and conspicuous labeling, and (2) may not charge an additional or separate fee for AM radio access.

DOT may assess civil penalties for any violation of the rule. The Department of Justice may also bring a civil action to enjoin a violation.

DOT’s authority to issue the rule expires 10 years after the bill’s enactment.

Further, the Government Accountability Office must study and report on the dissemination of emergency alerts to the public, including by conducting an assessment of AM broadcast stations relative to other Integrated Public Alert and Warning System communication technologies.

This bill authorizes the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to lease their land held in trust for a term of up to 99 years. Both tribes are located in Massachusetts.

Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2025

This bill prohibits using federal funds to conduct a first-use nuclear strike unless Congress expressly authorizes such a strike pursuant to a declaration of war. A first-use nuclear strike is an attack using nuclear weapons against an enemy without confirming that there has been a nuclear strike against the United States, its territories, or its allies.

Banning In Government Oil Industry Lobbyists from the Cabinet Act or the BIG OIL from the Cabinet Act

This bill prohibits the appointment of an individual to specified high-level federal positions if that individual has served as an executive officer of a fossil fuel entity, a fossil fuel lobbyist, or an executive officer of a fossil fuel trade association in the previous 10 years.

The applicable federal positions include the Chief of Staff to the President, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of State, and all political appointments in specified agencies.