IT HAS become a bit sparse at the top at the Federal Maritime Commission. Of the five commissioners, just three remain.

Carl Bentzel left in December and Louis Sola, the chairman, left in May. The remaining commissioners are Rebecca Dye, Daniel Maffie and Max Vekich.

On Thursday, the Trump administration submitted nominations to the US Senate to fill the two vacancies.

Laura DiBella has been nominated to replace Sola and Robert Harvey to replace Bentzel.

DiBella is a government affairs adviser at Florida law firm Adams and Reese. She previously served as the president of business development for FloridaCommerce and the president and chief executive of Enterprise Florida.

Most notably, she served as Florida’s first female secretary of commerce, from February to June 2023, and acting secretary of commerce from July 2022 to February 2023.

DiBella brings ample maritime experience to the table.

She was executive director of the Florida Harbor Pilots Association from November 2019 to July 2022, serving as the point of contact with the Maritime Administration and the US Coast Guard.

She was the director at Florida’s port of Fernandina from May 2017 to November 2019, coordinating with the Florida government to secure infrastructure.

Harvey is president of the Florida Opportunity Fund and Florida Development Finance Corporation.

He has worked together with DiBella before.

Harvey served as general counsel at Enterprise Florida from November 2022 to December 2023, at the same time DiBella was president and chief executive of Enterprise Florida, and concurrently, secretary of commerce.

Prior to that, Harvey ran law firms focused on securities litigation, arbitration and regulation.