After more than three years of advocacy, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (H.R. 979) is getting a vote on the House floor during the week of September 14.
I do not say that lightly. This is the moment NRB, our members, and our coalition partners have been working toward since several automakers began dropping AM receivers from new vehicles.
I want to be clear about something as we head into this vote: This is not just an AM story. It is a radio story and a broadcast media story with stakes that reach well beyond the dashboard. Congress is not simply deciding whether AM radio stays in cars; it is deciding whether free, local, over-the-air broadcasting will retain its place on the automobile dashboard or be quietly engineered out — one cost-cutting decision at a time.
I believe H.R. 979 will pass overwhelmingly. When it does, the bill will direct the Department of Transportation to require that new passenger vehicles include access to AM broadcasting at no additional cost to consumers and that AM remains easy to find on the automobile dashboard.
For NRB members, this is not an abstract issue. It is personal.
It’s the pastor sharing the Gospel, the ministry program helping parents raise their children, the pro-life leader telling the story of a mother who chose life, and the local church broadcasting its Sunday morning service. When severe weather or natural disasters strike and power and cellular networks fail, AM stations equipped with backup power can continue carrying not only emergency warnings and lifesaving information, but also the message our members exist to proclaim in the first place.
How did we get here?
This fight began when several automakers started removing AM receivers from certain models — electric vehicles especially — treating AM as a legacy feature rather than a public-safety resource. Christian communicators joined emergency managers, farm groups, broadcasters, and other coalition partners across the country in pushing back — and that pushback became a bill.
In July 2023, the first version cleared the Senate Commerce Committee and in September 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Committee. However, the 118th Congress adjourned before either chamber could hold a floor vote.
We started over in the 119th Congress, with Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) leading the effort in the House and Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leading in the Senate. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced S. 315 in February 2025, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R. 979 in September by a lopsided 50–1 vote. Support continued building from there, with the legislation eventually attracting 317 House cosponsors and 61 Senate cosponsors.
Even with that level of support, securing floor time was its own battle. For a time, we pursued multiple legislative vehicles to give the bill, and the industry, the best chance of success. But when other potential paths encountered turbulence, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) made the call to bring the AM radio bill to the floor on its own.
Scalise recently explained that decision on Salem Media’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.” He also connected the legislation to his experience during Hurricane Katrina, when extended power outages left people dependent on battery-powered and automobile radios for information.
“The only way people were getting information was from their AM radios,” Scalise said. That is precisely the argument we have been making throughout this effort.
During the August recess, NRB and our partners have kept the pressure on, engaging directly with the White House and House leadership to push for a vote before the election rather than risking another delay until a potential lame-duck session.
I also recently joined NAB’s “AirTime” podcast to discuss this issue in depth. Our focus was on getting the bill through the House Suspension Calendar and ensuring that the White House and congressional leadership understood the urgency of acting now, not later.
I have continued to emphasize another concern: If automakers can drop AM simply because doing so is cheaper or easier, nothing prevents that same logic from eventually being applied to FM or any other broadcast signal competing for dashboard space with subscription-based streaming services.
What will next week’s vote accomplish?
The House is expected to consider H.R. 979 under suspension of the rules, a procedure commonly used for legislation with broad bipartisan support. That means no amendments will be offered on the floor, but it also means the bill must clear a higher bar: Two-thirds of the members’ voting must support it.
With 317 cosponsors, we are in a strong position. But cosponsorship does not guarantee a “yes” vote, so we are not letting up on our outreach between now and the roll call.
When it passes (not if it passes), this will be the first time either chamber has passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act — a milestone the legislation has never reached in more than three years of effort.
A strong, lopsided House vote would also accomplish something beyond passage itself: It would send an unmistakable message to the Senate that this issue is ready to move.
What comes next?
House passage would be a genuinely significant accomplishment, but it would not send the bill directly to the president’s desk.
The Senate must still pass identical legislative text, and its window is tight. Senators return during the week of September 14 but will soon head back out on the campaign trail, leaving little floor time before the midterm elections.
Senate leaders could take up the House-passed bill directly, move their own companion bill, or find another legislative vehicle. If the two chambers pass different versions, those differences must be resolved before the legislation can reach the president.
On the encouraging side, Scalise said he is optimistic that a decisive House margin will create the momentum needed for Senate action. He also said he spoke directly with President Trump about the timing and that the president is aware the vote is coming and is prepared to sign the legislation. That is consistent with the president’s previous public comments about the bill.
“I will protect the content that is pro-God,” President Trump said at the NRB 2024 International Christian Media Convention. “To that end, at the request of the NRB, I will do my part to protect AM radio in our cars.”
For Christian communicators, next week’s vote is worth marking — not merely as a victory for AM radio, but as a victory for radio and free broadcast distribution as a whole. Years of advocacy have brought this legislation closer to the finish line than ever before.
Nic Anderson is the Vice President of Public Policy at NRB.