House Leaders Eye Early December Suspension Vote on AM Radio Vehicle Mandate Bill
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.
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“We’re going to get [HR-979] done early next month,” said Bilirakis, House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee chairman, in an interview last week. He expects chamber leaders will seek to move the bill under suspension of the rules, a procedural move that would quickly advance the measure without opening it up for amendments but requires a two-thirds majority vote to ensure its passage. The lower chamber will gavel back in Monday, after its Thanksgiving recess. House leaders appear likelier to bring up HR-979 the week of Dec. 8, but could still add the measure to the chamber’s agenda for next week, lobbyists told us. The House’s current agenda for next week already listed 22 bills that will get votes.
“It’s looking good, [but] I haven’t gotten as far as” planning how to also get the measure through the Senate, Bilirakis said. House Commerce advanced HR-979 with an amendment that changed the bill’s proposed sunset from 10 years to eight years after enactment, while S-315 still includes the original expiration date. “I haven’t spoken with” S-315 lead sponsor Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, yet about aligning the sunset dates, Bilirakis said. House Commerce amended the sunset to eight years as a compromise with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who had been pressing to lower it to five years, lobbyists told us.
HR-979 should easily clear the House’s two-thirds majority suspension vote threshold, as the measure had 317 cosponsors as of Wednesday, lobbyists told us. The bill got a boost earlier this month when the leaders of the House Homeland Security and Transportation committees agreed to discharge their jurisdiction over the bill, easing the pathway for floor action. Lobbyists see House Transportation’s discharge of HR-979 as particularly significant given the automotive industry’s past misgivings about the bill’s proposed mandate.
'Very Powerful Lobby'
But the changes to HR-979 haven’t satisfied all the measure’s House critics. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa of California, lead GOP sponsor of that chamber’s version of the American Music Fairness Act (HR-861), told us he remains opposed to HR-979 amid expectations it won't move in tandem with his bill. HR-861 and Senate companion S-326 would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio. Congressional leaders dropped a bid to attach a previous version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act to a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations last year after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pressed to also add AMFA (see 2412180033).
Supporters of HR-979/S-315 in the broadcasting industry “are a very powerful lobby and I support them a great deal of the time, [but] on this one I do not,” Issa said. “If they can get that supermajority [in the House for the bill, then] they deserve it.” But “the broadcasters want it all their way … without being willing to meet any obligations” on paying royalties, he said. “And now they want a dying technology to be preserved artificially.” Automakers “have said, ‘Look, we're happy to have that where you pull over to the side of the road, and you can hear whatever you want to hear, but the cost of making that work in an electric vehicle with the motor noise is substantial,’” Issa said: “It becomes an unfunded mandate. So, I still believe it has a ways to go.”
Miller, a vocal HR-979/S-315 supporter, expects the measure to clear the House's suspension threshold by an “overwhelming” margin. “It's probably the most bipartisan bill in Congress in several years,” despite past setbacks that hindered passage, Miller said. He doesn’t expect AMFA’s top backers to make another play to tie it and HR-979, despite a recent push by Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow and 14 other recording artists (see 2511040069). It's possible that Cruz could agree to move HR-979 through the Senate rather than pursue S-315 if the House passes its measure with the supermajority supporters now expect, Miller said.
NAB directed us to a statement it made after House Commerce advanced HR-979 in September in which the group emphasized the “powerful consensus [in favor of] keeping AM radio in new cars so drivers can access free emergency warnings and public safety information while on the road.” CTA and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, who have long opposed HR-979, didn’t comment.