AM Radio Bill Clears Key Senate Hurdle, Gains Support in House

posted on 2.10.2025

- Performance Tax Legislation Unveiled in House

The Senate Commerce Committee chaired by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last week passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act just as companion legislation was filed in the House, both signs of a laser focus by Cruz and other Congressional supporters to ready the measure for final passage quickly.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr applauded the Senate committee’s move.

“By ensuring that AM radios remain in new vehicles, their legislation will help keep this linchpin of our emergency response system in place and also ensure that Americans can continue to access relevant news, information, and entertainment programming,” Carr said.  “I hope the full Senate can move this bill forward quickly.”

The issue arose a couple years ago when some electric vehicle manufacturers announced plans to exclude AM from new vehicles because of the extra steps needed to protect against interference from electric motors.

Undermining access to AM signals, however, poses a security risk because AM Radio is the backbone of the emergency communications system, allowing the President of the United States to communicate with 99 percent of Americans within a couple minutes.

One new provision in both versions of the new bill is designed to expedite passage to floor action – a 10-year sunset that was negotiated and agreed to by party leaders of both chambers’ Commerce committees at the end of last Congress.

The addition should help the bill avoid any opposition in committee this year, and it’s a common provision in federal legislative policymaking.

About 28 percent of all Texans listen to one of the state’s 275 AM Radio stations daily.

TAB is taking two dozen Texas broadcasters to Washington, DC the first week of March to advocate on this and other issues with the state’s 40-member congressional delegation, more than half of whom signed on to co-sponsor the bill.

Gearing Up to Fight New Music Royalties

While key members of Congress are renewing their opposition to a Performance Tax on local Radio stations with their reintroduction of the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA), a group of mostly coastal Senators and Representatives have introduced a bill that would proactively create just such a new tax.

In the great tradition of Congressional misdirection, the bill is titled the “American Music Fairness Act” or AMFA.

The bill would force Radio stations across the country to pay a new music performance royalty in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties already collectively paid by stations across the country to musical artists.

For the past several years during this effort, Texas has led the country in the number of LRFA co-sponsors and stations are encouraged to contact their lawmakers to ask for their support again.

Attorney David Oxenford with Wilkinson Barker Knauer offers this take on how AMFA would affect broadcasters.

Questions? Contact Oscar Rodriguez or call (512) 322-9944.

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