AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025
Official title: To require the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule requiring access to AM broadcast stations in motor vehicles, and for other purposes.
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Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 622.
AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025
This bill requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a rule requiring AM radio capabilities to be standard in all new passenger vehicles. (AM radio is often used to deliver emergency alerts and news and entertainment programming; some newer vehicles do not include AM equipment.)
Specifically, this bill applies to passenger vehicles (1) manufactured in the United States for sale in the United States, imported into the United States, or shipped in interstate commerce; and (2) manufactured after the rule's effective date. The rule must require all such vehicles to have devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by AM stations or digital audio AM stations installed as standard equipment and made easily accessible to drivers.
Prior to the rule's effective date, manufacturers that do not include devices that can access AM radio as standard equipment (1) must inform purchasers of this fact through clear and conspicuous labeling, and (2) may not charge an additional or separate fee for AM radio access.
DOT may assess civil penalties for any violation of the rule. The Department of Justice may also bring a civil action to enjoin a violation.
The rule, including DOT’s authority to enforce it, must expire 10 years after the bill’s enactment.
Further, the Government Accountability Office must study and report on the dissemination of emergency alerts to the public, including by conducting an assessment of AM radio relative to other Integrated Public Alert and Warning System communication technologies.
- Engrossed in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- Placed on Calendar Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- Reported in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- BROOKS, PIERCE, MCLENDON, HUMPHREY & LEONARD, L.L.P.
- BROOKS, PIERCE, MCLENDON, HUMPHREY & LEONARD, L.L.P.
- BROOKS, PIERCE, MCLENDON, HUMPHREY & LEONARD, L.L.P.
- FEDERAL STREET STRATEGIES, LLC
- INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS
- IHEARTMEDIA, INC.
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Transportation, Dept of (DOT)
- Commerce, Dept of (DOC)
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Labor, Dept of (DOL)
- Natl Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 979: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-979/
"H.R. 979: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-979/.
H.R. 979, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-979/.
[H.R. 979: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-979/)