Lidinsky nominated for FMC commissioner
President Obama has nominated 35-year maritime industry veteran Richard A. Lidinsky Jr. as U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner.
Lidinsky started his career as a congressional aid to the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee before being joining the FMC's Office of General Counsel as legislative counsel from 1973 to 1975.
In 1975, Lidinsky was appointed by the Maryland Port Administration to be director of tariffs and national port affairs. He was considered a key architect of the port protection sections in the Panama Canal Treaty implementing legislation and the 1984 Shipping Act. He also helped negotiate on behalf of the Port of Baltimore one of the first U.S.-China trade agreements.
In 1985, Lidinsky was hired by Sea Containers Ltd., a container manufacturing and leasing company, to establish its Washington office. As vice president of government affairs until 2006, he established Sea Containers' contracts with the Defense Department to supply military equipment from the company's factory in Charleston, S.C.
Lidinsky also served as a member of the Defense Transportation Association's Sealift Transportation Committee; as board director and on the Defense, Transportation and Port Security Committee of the British-American Business Association; and a high-level expert to the U.S. NATO Delegation on the Ports and Intermodal Transportation Committee from 1995 to 2005.
He is currently an attorney and international trade consultant in private practice.
Lidinsky’s nomination follows Obama’s decision last week to name sitting FMC Commissioner Joseph E. Brennan as acting chair of the agency.
Commissioner Harold J. Creel Jr. plans to retire at the end of June, so Lidinsky’s arrival will give the agency three commissioners, including Rebecca F. Dye. The FMC has slots for five commissioners, but has not been staffed at that level since 2006.
A former governor and congressman from Maine, Brennan’s appointment as chairman was applauded this week by a coalition of environmental and labor groups.
'Joseph Brennan has shown an understanding that trade in the global economy can have a devastating impact in our communities and that our local officials and government need the tools to protect public health and the environment,' said Alberto Mendoza, president of the California-based Coalition for Clean Air. 'President Obama has selected someone who gets it: environmental stewardship and a strong economy are compatible.'
Brennan dissented from a decision last year by Creel and Dye to seek a federal injunction to stop the Clean Trucks Program (CTP) of the Port of Los Angeles, calling it a “colossal mistake for the commission to try to block a program of environmental protection and economic expansion that has been endorsed as reasonable and necessary” by a wide range of California officials.
