Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Maritime Commission Establishes Regulatory Reform Task Force

By Mark Edward Nero

On March 13, acting Federal Maritime Commission Chair Michael Khouri designated the agency’s managing director, Karen Gregory, to oversee a regulatory reform task force that will work to identify burdensome, unnecessary and outdated directives, and recommend how they should be remedied.

“Relief from regulatory requirements that have outlived their usefulness is one of the easiest contributions the Federal Maritime Commission can make to increased efficiencies and creating economic benefits,” Khouri said in a statement.

“The positive response from what the Commission ordered recently in terms of creating more realistic filing requirements for service contract amendments demonstrates the benefits that can be achieved from simply asking if there is a better way to do this,” he said.

The FMC says the designation of a regulatory review officer and establishing a regulatory reform task force is consistent with the intent of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on February 24, the deregulatory spirit of the Shipping Act of 1984 as amended by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998, and agency regulatory review initiatives ongoing since November 4, 2011.