Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida, lead GOP sponsor of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979), acknowledged Tuesday night that the House’s timeline for passing the bill has slipped slightly but insisted that its leaders still plan to bring it to the floor for a vote soon. He and other backers of HR-979 and Senate companion S-315 had expected a fast-track House vote earlier this month on the measure, which would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology.
A Senate Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee hearing Tuesday featured limited but positive discussion about the Making National Parks Safer Act (S-290) amid a larger focus on a slate of more than two dozen other measures on the agenda. S-290 would require the Interior Department to develop a plan within one year to install next-generation 911 technology at the National Park System's emergency communications centers. Tuesday's hearing didn’t touch on lingering questions about how Congress would fund NG911 upgrades after Republicans decided in July against allocating future spectrum auction revenue for that purpose in the budget reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (see 2507080065).
The House plans to vote this week on a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, released Sunday night. The compromise bill omits Senate-passed language from its earlier version (S-2296) that would have given the DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2510160057). The House’s NDAA version (HR-3838) didn't include similar language. The compromise NDAA, filed as an amendment to shell bill S-1071, also omits language to preempt states’ AI laws amid GOP divisions on that issue (see 2512030038).
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) voiced concerns about a planned Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on whether to levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio, saying Thursday that the meeting “could be used to conflate” that issue and expected congressional action on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979/S-315). Congressional leaders scrapped a bid to attach a previous version of the measure to a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations last year after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pressed to simultaneously add the American Music Fairness Act, which would institute a terrestrial performance right (see 2412180033).
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Wednesday that he's demanding that CBS News Ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein investigate whether President Donald Trump improperly influenced and coerced the network’s editing of a 60 Minutes interview that aired in early November.
The House Commerce Committee advanced the American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) Wednesday by a closer-than-expected 26-24 party-line vote, with unified Democratic opposition and a smattering of Republican absences at that point in the markup session. The panel also unanimously advanced the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046) and five other bipartisan connectivity bills, as expected (see 2512020063).
The House Commerce Committee is planning a meeting Wednesday to mark up the Communications Subcommittee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) and six bipartisan connectivity bills that the subpanel advanced in November (see 2511180053). House Commerce said Monday night that the bills on the docket are the Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act (HR-1343), Facilitating the Deployment of Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1588), Deploying Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1665), Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act (HR-1681), Standard Fees to Expedite Evaluation and Streamlining Act (HR-1731) and the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046).
Senate Communications Subcommittee members alternated Tuesday between debating the FCC’s rollback last month of its January response to the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks and making bipartisan calls to renew the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr led the push for the agency to reverse January's declaratory ruling from the closing days of former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s administration, which said the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Section 105 requires telecom carriers to secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2501160041). The FCC in November also withdrew an NPRM on cybersecurity requirements that the commission issued along with the declaratory ruling (see 2511200047).
House leaders intend to hold a floor vote on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979) in early December, lead sponsor Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and National Religious Broadcasters CEO Troy Miller separately confirmed to us. HR-979 and Senate companion S-315 would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology, mostly affecting electric vehicles. Supporters are optimistic that House passage of HR-979 could increase momentum for the measure, as that would represent the first time the lower chamber has cleared the legislation. The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-979 in September (see 2509170068), while the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the slightly different S-315 in February.