Trump Administration Puts Forward FMC Commissioner Nominees

President Trump put forward two nominees this month to fill vacancies on the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). Daniel Maffei, who previously served as FMC commissioner from July 2016 until his term expired in June 2018, was re-nominated to serve a five-year term that lasts until June 30, 2022. L.E. Sola is the second nominee, to serve a five-year term that will expire on June 30, 2023.

Maffei would return to the FMC from George Washington University, where he served as a professor in the Graduate School of Political Management since leaving the agency. Maffei’s previous service on the FMC came in finishing the term of Richard A. Lidinsky, a former FMC Chairman, from 2016 to 2018. Prior to his initial appointment to the FMC, Maffei served as a Democratic congressman from upstate New York for two non-consecutive terms.

Louis E. Sola currently serves on the Florida Board of Pilot Commissioners, the licensing body for harbor pilots in that state. His work history includes founding and serving as CEO of Evermarine, a Miami-based yacht brokerage company, sales leadership with Campers & Nicholson International, and consultancy with Arden & Price related to the handover of the Panama Canal. As previously reported by the Journal of Commerce, Sola joined more than 100 business owners, including Carl Icahn, Anthony Scaramucci (former White House Director of Communications), Larry Kudlow (currently the Director of the National Economic Council), Steve Mnuchin (currently the U.S. Treasury Secretary), Wilbur Ross (currently the U.S. Commerce Secretary), on an October 2016 group letter endorsing Donald Trump’s campaign for the Presidency.

The FMC is currently operating with two commissioners, though up to five may be appointed (with three of the appointees representing a political party. In addition to Acting Chairman Michael A. Khouri and Commissioner Rebecca Dye, both Republicans, the addition of Maffei and Sola will bring the partisan balance of the Commission to 3-1. Both nominations must be approved by the U.S. Senate in the lame-duck session prior to the end of the year or the nominations must be resubmitted to the new Congress in 2019.

TIA closely monitors the regulation of ocean transportation intermediaries by the FMC. TIA is a leading voice in the Coalition for Fair Port Practices, which requested that the Agency act to clarify what constitutes “just and reasonable” practices for the assessment of detention and demurrage charges by ocean carriers and marine terminal operators. The FMC has announced that it will publish a report on a fact-finding investigation related to these practices in early December 2018. To learn more about TIA’s International Logistics Conference, or about issues related to the FMC, please contact Will Sehestedt at sehestedt@tianet.org or 703-299-5713.