Time may run out on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act after the Senate adjourned until after the November midterm elections without bringing the bill to the floor.
The Senate returns the week of Nov. 9 leaving a lame-duck session with only eight working days scheduled in November and 14 in December, including Fridays rarely used for floor action. Any bill that does not pass before the current Congress ends on Jan. 3 dies and must be reintroduced from scratch next year. The 2023 version failed after a December push fell short in the Senate.
Advocates had hoped to get the Senate version to the floor before the recess. That did not happen. When the chamber returns, it will face a crowded list of priorities. Asked about pushing so much work into November and December, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sarcastically called the scramble their “golden era.”
The National Association of Broadcasters remains optimistic. “We’re on the one-yard line, and the momentum behind the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act remains incredibly strong,” NAB Vice President of Communications Carrie Healey told Inside Radio.
The bill would require the Department of Transportation to issue a rule within one year making AM radio standard in all new passenger vehicles sold in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March that the requirement would affect roughly 2 million to 2.5 million vehicles a year among models now built or planned without AM receivers, at a federal cost of $1 million over five years.