Obama Nominates David T. Matsuda to be Maritime Administrator

A White House press release ends 321 days of speculation and waiting for domestic maritime community. Michael P. Huerta, a DOT official in the Clinton administration, was also tapped to fill the number two post of deputy administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration.

December 7, 2009: President Obama has announced his intent to nominate David T. Matsuda as Administrator, Maritime Administration, Department of Transportation. Matsuda has been serving as Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration since July 2009. According to the White House press release, he is a transportation professional with more than a decade of experience in federal transportation policy, programs and oversight.

Prior to his current position, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), where he served as a chief policy advisor and focused on issues including surface transportation reauthorization, labor issues, high speed rail and what the White House characterized only as “maritime matters.” Previous to that, Matsuda spent more than seven years working in the United States Senate, helping to draft and secure passage of critical pieces of significant federal transportation legislation, including modernization of oil pollution prevention and response programs, an overhaul of our nation’s passenger rail system, and security improvements at U.S. seaports.

Matsuda has served on the staff of U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security, the Office of Chief Counsel at the USDOT’s Federal Railroad Administration and as a Georgetown University Government Affairs Institute Fellow. He earned his B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, and his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in San Diego, CA.

Matsuda was appointed Deputy Maritime Administrator by President Obama on July 28, 2009, and was officially sworn into office on July 30, 2009.

The White House also said that Obama will also nominate Michael P. Huerta, a Department of Transportation official in the Clinton administration, to fill the number two post of deputy administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration.