WASHINGTON – Raymond Martinez, chairman and chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
If confirmed by the Senate, Martinez would replace acting administrator Daphne Jefferson, who has been heading FMCSA since Scott Darling resigned as administrator in January when Trump took office.
Martinez will be joining FMCSA as it is undergoing an overhaul of its safety performance scoring system and is overseeing the mandate of electronic logging devices on commercial motor vehicles that takes effect Dec. 18.
FMCSA also is reviewing several pending rules affecting the motorcoach and trucking industries to meet the Trump administration’s call for reducing burdensome federal regulations.
FMCSA employs more than 1,000 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and its primary mission is to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses, according to the agency.
Martinez currently manages a New Jersey state agency with more than $1 billion in annual revenue and an operating budget of approximately $330 million. It is charged with licensing nearly 6 million drivers and the titling, registration and inspection of more than 6 million vehicles.
He previously served as the commissioner of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and chairman of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee as well as deputy chief of staff and special counsel to the New York State Attorney General.
Martinez has twice served on the board of directors of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
Earlier in his career, he served on numerous White House advance teams for domestic and international trips of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. During the Reagan administration, he was deputy director for scheduling and advance for First Lady Nancy Reagan and also served as a special assistant at the New York Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Martinez earned a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in New York and a bachelor’s degree from Long Island University’s C.W. Post College, where he later served on the adjunct faculty in public administration.
