A leadership shift at the Federal Maritime Commission can change how every container moves and how every consumer pays. We sit down with Chair Laura DeBella for a candid, fast-paced tour of her path from real estate and rural economic development to port director, harbor pilot advocate during the cruise shutdown, Florida’s Secretary of Commerce, and now head of the nation’s ocean shipping competition authority.

Laura shares how a people-first, business-informed mindset shapes her approach to fair and reliable ocean transportation. We dig into what small ports can do that mega-terminals can’t, why Marine Highway services still matter, and how pilots kept ships moving when cruise revenues vanished. She breaks down the unglamorous but vital side of leadership—supporting staff, running an agency, and keeping investigations and rulemakings sharp—while outlining a global posture that recognizes geopolitics, chokepoints, and alliance behavior ripple straight into U.S. shipper costs and delivery times.

We also explore how the FMC’s existing authorities—agreements oversight, service contract monitoring, detention and demurrage enforcement, and tools like the Foreign Shipping Practices Act—can protect shippers without waiting for new laws. Expect clear talk on chassis, congestion in the heartland after winter storms, cruise market dynamics, and the simple truth that maritime is not a niche: it is the backbone of trade. If you care about competition, transparency, and getting goods where they need to go at a fair price, this conversation delivers context you can use.

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A 41-page Maritime Action Plan just reframed the future of U.S. shipping, and we dove in the moment it dropped. Lauren welcomes shipbuilding specialist Caitlin Hardy to unpack what’s real, what’s next, and where the biggest leverage points are—from yard financing and mariner pipelines to cargo policy, OEM localization, and Arctic ambitions.

We start with the four pillars and why incentives may finally align shipyards, operators, and suppliers. Expect a frank look at capital: expanding grants and financing beyond “small yard” scale, a proposed maritime incentives coalition to unify state and federal tools, and prosperity zones that pull investment inland. We debate the universal one‑cent fee on foreign‑built vessels calling U.S. ports—how it could seed a Maritime Security Trust Fund without spiking prices—and the “bridge strategy” with allies like Korea and Japan to build early hulls abroad while standing up U.S. capacity at home.

People remain the constraint, so we get specific on workforce reforms: faster, digital credentialing; high‑fidelity simulators that count toward seatime; Military‑to‑Mariner upgrades that honor Navy and Coast Guard experience; and tax relief for income earned on U.S.‑flag ships in international trade. We tackle procurement friction head‑on—multi‑hull orders, vessel construction managers, and repeatable commercial designs—and the sensitive balance between accelerating standardization and protecting intellectual property. Then we zoom into the industrial base: cutting sole‑source dependencies for shafts, propellers, steels, and electronics, and creating durable demand signals so OEMs onshore for good.

Finally, we head north. The plan’s Arctic chapter is far more muscular than expected, spotlighting Alaska infrastructure, ice‑capable tonnage, fisheries, and maritime domain awareness, plus tightly scoped seabed resource partnerships with allies. Threaded through is a strategic commercial fleet concept to ensure U.S.‑controlled cargo capacity that can surge in crisis, reinforcing programs like MSP and TSP. Whether you’re in ports, policy, shipyards, or on the bridge, this breakdown gives you the context to act, not just react.

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Rates may be easing, but the real story is reliability. We open with a change at the Port of New York and New Jersey, where a long-running absenteeism problem finally meets stricter rules—small news on the surface, big implications for crane productivity, truck turns, and vessel planning. Predictable people make predictable ports, and that consistency is the backbone of schedule integrity shippers depend on.

From there, we widen the lens to India’s plan for a state-backed container carrier and what that triggers in U.S. oversight. The Federal Maritime Commission’s controlled carrier rules exist to keep state-supported pricing aligned with commercial reality, protecting fair competition while allowing new capacity to enter the market. We explain how those guardrails work, why rate-change notice periods matter, and what shippers should expect if India’s line touches U.S. trades.

We also track the capacity story: Gemini’s tighter network is lifting reliability while newbuilds arrive and services start threading the Suez again. Shorter voyages free vessel days and effectively add space—classic conditions for rate pressure. That’s good for budgets, but we caution against celebrating unsustainably low prices. Carriers face higher operating costs than a decade ago, and history shows that fragile balance sheets lead to fragile schedules. Reliability beats cheap when your inventory strategy is on the line.

Finally, we break down Panama’s Supreme Court decision voiding long-standing port concessions, the geopolitical backlash, and APM Terminals stepping in to stabilize operations. Against the backdrop of the FMC’s Maritime Chokepoints Investigation, we connect how canal policies, flags of convenience, and corrective authorities can shape access and costs for U.S.-bound cargo. The throughline is simple: labor, law, and lanes are converging to reset the risk map for global ocean shipping.

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🎙️ Thanks for tuning in to By Land and By Sea powered by The Maritime Professor®! If you enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe ⭐ and leave a review 📝 - it really helps others find the show.

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⚓ Learn more and explore past episodes at: www.TheMaritimeProfessor.com/podcast