Comments Invited on Initial Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2014- 2018

Contact: Karen V. Gregory, Secretary (202-523-5725)

The Federal Maritime Commission (Commission) has released and invites comment on its Initial Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014-2018. This new initial draft plan replaces and updates the current 2010-2015 Strategic Plan. OMB is requiring all federal agencies to prepare strategic plans for the 2014-2018 time period in an effort to coordinate planning across the federal government.

In its initial draft plan, the Commission restates its mission: “To foster a fair, efficient and reliable international ocean transportation system and to protect the public from unfair and deceptive practices.” The initial draft plan also retains previous strategic goals one and two, as well as the section on the Administrative Strategies in Support of Agency Objectives. The goals and objectives continue to link directly to annual plans for the same fiscal years as well as to the agency’s annual budget process. Each goal and objective includes corresponding measures and targets to track Commission performance in meeting its strategic goals. Significant differences between the Commission’s current strategic plan and the 2014-2018 initial draft plan include:

• The objective and performance measure under Strategic Goal 1 is replaced with a new objective and performance measure that better captures the Commission’s performance on maintaining an efficient and competitive international ocean transportation system. The new proposed objective – “Enhance efficiency in the trades through the use of asset sharing authority under the Shipping Act of 1984,” will be measured by “the percentage share of U.S. containerized cargo moving on other agreement parties’ vessels in major U.S. trades.”
• To benchmark and assist in comparing the Commission’s annual performance under each strategic goal and related objectives against its annual performance over the next 5 years, the Commission’s 2012 actual performance results for each performance measure is added to the “Summary of Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Performance Measures” table.
• Additional language is added to each objective to clarify how the Commission will use listed strategies to support each objective under each of the strategic goals.

Comments on the Commission’s initial draft strategic plan can be submitted on or before August 30, 2013 and may be submitted in paper form (only an original filing is needed) or as an attachment to an email (attachments should be in Microsoft Word or PDF). When submitting comments either in paper or by email, include in the subject line: “Comments on FMC Initial Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2014-2018”. Address all comments concerning the initial draft plan to:

Office of the Managing Director
Federal Maritime Commission
800 North Capitol Street, NW. Room 1078
Washington, DC 20573-0001
Email: OMD@fmc.gov

The Federal Maritime Commission is the federal agency responsible for regulating the nation’s international ocean transportation for the benefit of exporters, importers, and the American consumer. The FMC’s mission is to foster a fair, efficient, and reliable international ocean transportation system while protecting the public from unfair and deceptive practices.