AM Radio Vehicle Mandate Supporters Prod Hill Leaders to Move Bill
Supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979/S-315) are pressing for the House Commerce Committee and congressional leaders to prioritize the measure when lawmakers return from the August recess, given that they have repeatedly put it on the back burner in recent months. HR-979 and S-315, which the Senate Commerce Committee advanced in February (see 2502100072), would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology, mostly affecting electric vehicles. The bill’s supporters unsuccessfully tried to attach it to a December continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations (see Ref:2412180033]).
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House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told us just before the August recess that he expects the panel to mark up HR-979 in “early fall” but didn’t have a specific “date set.” House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., HR-979’s lead sponsor, pegged the markup session as potentially happening the first week of September.
A senior broadcasting official said industry is also hoping a markup will happen “next month.” Bill supporters have expected the panel to consider the measure at various markup sessions this year, most recently in July (see 2507020062), only to have other issues take precedence.
Guthrie said the longer-than-expected wait on HR-979 is a matter of “logistics” rather than an indication of concerns the measure wouldn’t easily advance. House Commerce voted 45-2 in September 2024 to advance a previous version of the bill (see 2409180047). The panel has been waiting to “package [HR-979 with] other bills that fit in that [policy] space” to reduce a recent pattern of marathon markup sessions, Guthrie said. Bilirakis said House Commerce dropped HR-979 from its July 23 meeting because the measure’s “subject matter” didn’t align with a pair of other bills on the agenda.
National Religious Broadcasters CEO Troy Miller, who lobbied Congress in July in favor of HR-979/S-315 (see 2507140056), told us the measure has “more than enough” co-sponsors in both chambers to pass easily. But “the big challenge is to get leadership to actually bring it to the floor,” even though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., backs the legislation, Miller said. He's “very concerned [that House Commerce] pushed aside [an HR-979 markup] to September,” since lawmakers’ priority when they reconvene after Labor Day will be addressing appropriations bills before FY 2025 ends Sept. 30. “We just don't want to see the bill get pushed aside again,” Miller said.
S-315’s lead sponsors -- Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. -- emphasized that the measure has 60 co-sponsors, meaning it would clear the legislative cloture threshold if brought up for a vote. “I am 100% confident that by the end of this year, [Cruz] and I will be able to get [S-315] across the finish line,” Markey said in an interview. “It’s just a question of getting floor time,” Cruz told us: “I’ve discussed it with Senate leadership multiple times.” Miller said the Senate is holding off on moving S-315 “to see where the House is going to go with” HR-979.
Roadblocks?
Cruz and Bilirakis said they also see scenarios where HR-979/S-315 could move as part of a September continuing resolution or another legislative package, given how close it came to passing that way in December. House GOP leaders jettisoned previous AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act language from the December CR after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pressed to also add the American Music Fairness Act, which would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio.
Miller said he believes congressional leaders have “successfully separated out” the terrestrial royalty issue so it won’t be a hurdle to passing HR-979/S-315 in this Congress, in part because Senate Commerce added a 10-year sunset provision to S-315 when it advanced the measure in February. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., dropped his previous opposition to the measure because of that addition (see 2502100072).
House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa of California, lead GOP sponsor of that chamber’s refiled American Music Fairness Act (HR-861), told us that tying that bill with HR-979 could still be “a very clever way … to get a lot of us to vote” to mandate AM radio technology in vehicles. He said he doubts broadcasters would ever agree to that exchange and continues to believe “that it is incredibly expensive to try to make AM radio work” in electric vehicles. Lobbyists noted that some lawmakers will continue to block quick passage of HR-979/S-315, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., because they oppose enacting new mandates.
Consumer Technology Association Vice President of Regulatory Affairs David Grossman is also eyeing potential action on HR-979/S-315 after the August recess. “We will be ready to oppose any such efforts,” which are part of a trend of broadcaster-led bids to “enforce their regulatory mandate agenda,” Grossman told us. Broadcasters unsuccessfully sought to require FM chips in smartphones and are now pushing for the FCC to require TVs to include ATSC 3.0 tuners, he said: The industry is using the “same playbook” to boost HR-979/S-315. Grossman also argued that enacting an AM radio vehicle mandate would run counter to the Trump administration’s deregulation push.