Senate Expected to Vote on FMCSA Nominee Ray Martinez After Break
The nominee to lead the country’s regulatory agency for commercial trucks and buses is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate before the end of the year, aides familiar with the nomination told Transport Topics on Nov. 20.
The nomination of Ray Martinez to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is among the priorities for Senate Republican leaders. A vote could be scheduled as early as the week of Nov. 27. GOP floor managers have yet to schedule a vote on the nomination.
If confirmed, Martinez would become the nation’s top trucking regulator.
Earlier this month, the Commerce Committee approved Martinez’s nomination. The members of the panel praised Martinez and his qualifications for the post.
Martinez affirmed he would follow through with a Dec. 18 mandate on electronic logging devices for truckers. The upcoming mandate is backed primarily by larger carriers and distributors, while a significant number of smaller firms and independent drivers continue to oppose it.
He also pledged a review of ongoing reforms to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability safety performance scoring program for motor carriers, and he emphasized the role data analytics plays for improving safety across freight corridors.
“We have to be a data-driven organization,” he said. “We rely on 13,000 partners in the state level who are also stretched. We have to be focused in our efforts and we need data to do that, appropriate data to do that.”
Martinez, chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, fills a vacant post.
He earned degrees from Long Island University-C.W. Post College, as well as St. John’s University School of Law.
