AM Radio Vehicle Mandate Backers See Momentum, Hurdles After Senate Commerce OK
Supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act told us they see the Senate Commerce Committee’s strong vote Wednesday to advance its revised version of the measure (S-315) as a positive early step. But they acknowledged the Capitol Hill dynamics that led congressional leaders to scuttle a December bid to pass an earlier version of the measure via a year-end package remains an obstacle. Senate Commerce advanced S-315 on a voice vote, with Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, asking the panel to record him as opposed (see 2502050052).
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Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas, S-315's lead GOP sponsor, told us after the panel’s Wednesday vote that he intends to move forward on the measure “early this year and get it passed on the merits.” S-315 and House companion HR-979 would require the Department of Transportation to mandate AM radio's inclusion in future automobiles, mostly affecting electric vehicles. Cruz and other bill backers unsuccessfully attempted in December to attach it to a continuing resolution that extended federal appropriations through March 14 (see 2412180033).
S-315 will “get north of 90 votes” in the Senate and could get a similarly “large bipartisan majority” in the House, Cruz told us. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told us S-315 sponsors’ addition of a 10-year sunset for the measure led him to drop his erstwhile opposition to it. Peters was the only Senate Commerce member to vote against a past version of the legislation when the panel cleared it in 2023 (see 2307270063). The added sunset also assuaged other lawmakers who align with auto industry interests, lobbyists said.
Cruz told us he wasn’t sure yet whether House Democratic leaders’ opposition to moving a version of the measure unless it was in tandem with the American Music Fairness Act, which torpedoed the AM radio mandate’s inclusion in the CR, could again be a major hurdle in this Congress. House GOP leaders jettisoned the language from the CR text after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pressed to also add AMFA, which would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio. “End-of-year negotiations are always squirrely,” Cruz said.
House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa of California, lead GOP sponsor of that chamber’s refiled AMFA (HR-861), told us he was not involved in the push to tie the fortunes of his measure and the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act at the end of last year, but he pushed back against claims that torpedoed the latter bill’s chances of passage. “The broadcasters have too many votes in their pocket” right now for that to be the case, Issa said. He predicted it will remain a “challenge” to pass the mandate because AM radio waves are “very hard to isolate from the electric signals created from” a vehicle’s engine and “almost impossible” for EVs. Consumers “wouldn't like how” an AM receiver works in an EV absent technology to suppress the radio signals’ effect on the engine, he said.
Blackburn Seeks Compromise
Other HR-979/S-315 backers are also assessing whether a push to move HR-861 and Senate companion S-326 in tandem with their measure would continue hindering its prospects. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, lead S-326 Republican sponsor, told us her office is seeking a compromise. House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey, lead HR-979 Democrat, alluded to “concerns of different people” in caucus leadership about the measure during the last Congress. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, lead S-315 Democratic sponsor, said he and others will “try to work together to resolve any and all issues” and “we're very confident we will be successful.”
AMFA “hasn’t been part of the discussion” on HR-979/S-315 yet this Congress, said House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade (CMT) Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis of Florida, lead HR-979 GOP sponsor. Bilirakis said he wants the subpanel to act on HR-979 in March, and “I think it will become law during the first part of this year.” He said he plans to “discuss with leadership whether it’s possible” to attach the measure to a coming GOP-led budget reconciliation package, because that will be among the legislative vehicles with the best chance of moving this year.
Consumer Technology Association Senior Manager-Policy Affairs India Herdman told us that the group, which has criticized AM radio mandate proposals, will continue backing attempts to move AMFA with HR-979/S-315. “We think it's the right thing to do to support people being paid for their work, and it just so happens that’s what [Jeffries] cares about as well,” Herdman said. She predicted a “narrative” shift against the mandate because of the ascension of House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.
New York State Broadcasters Association President David Donovan told us he’s “optimistic” the AM radio mandate “will move forward” this year. He discounted proposal opponents' ability to use HR-861/S-326 as a poison pill because the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution opposing a terrestrial right, drew strong bipartisan support in previous Congresses. Allowing private entities to block reception of emergency alert messages by removing AM receivers from vehicles would be “troubling” from a national security perspective, Donovan said.