Senators Address 3 DOT Nominations

This story appears in the July 27 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced the nominations of several other key administration officials to the full Senate on July 21, including the nomination of Deborah Hersman to lead the National Transportation Safety Board.

Along with Hersman, the committee approved the nominations of Polly Trottenberg as assistant secretary for transportation policy in the Department of Transportation and Richard Lidinsky as a commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission.

“I am very pleased with the nominees,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), committee chairman.

“These are talented nominees,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), ranking minority member of the committee. “[They are] dedicated individuals who need to be placed in their agencies.”

Also, the White House on July 17 formally sent to the Senate the nomination of Anne Ferro to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Ferro, who is now president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, earlier in her career served as administrator of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.

The Senate Commerce Committee has yet to announce when it will take up Ferro’s nomination.

In her time on the NTSB, Hersman has been on the scene at 16 transportation accidents, including a 2005 trash truck crash in Arlington, Va.

Before her nomination, Trottenberg was the executive director of Building America’s Future, an infrastructure coalition founded by Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D), California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I).

Lidinsky, an international trade lawyer and consultant, has worked for 35 years in the international maritime trade industry and worked with the U.S.-NATO delegation on the Ports and Intermodal Transportation Committee.