FMCSA’s acting boss Jim Mullen stepping down at month’s end

Updated Aug 21, 2020
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Mullen’s talk at the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association’s symposium ranged over a multitude of topics, from ongoing work on the CSA program to plaintiff’s lawyers’ domination of FOIA requests to the agency in fishing expeditions for adverse data on fleets unlucky enough to be involved in an accident, regardless of fault.
Jim MullenJim Mullen

Jim Mullen, who’s helmed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in an interim capacity since October 2019, is leaving the agency at the end of August.

Wiley Deck, currently the senior policy advisor to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and FMCSA’s former director of government affairs, will assume the role of Deputy Administrator at FMCSA — the agency’s de-facto boss until a new FMCSA Administrator is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

“We greatly appreciate Jim’s service and the work he has done for our country,” the DOT said in a statement.

Mullen assumed the role as Deputy Administrator, and effective acting FMCSA chief, last October when former Administrator Ray Martinez announced his departure. In just his 10-month tenure as FMCSA’s boss, however, he did shepherd through a Final Rule to overhaul hours of service regulations, an initiative left in progress by Martinez when he left.