YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityAM radio would be required in every new car within about three years — carmakers could not charge extra for it.
Your Money
The Transportation Department would write the rule within a year, and it could take effect up to two years after that. The rule would also have to put AM within easy reach of the driver.
Before the rule starts, a carmaker could not charge a fee for AM access on a car sold without it. After the rule, AM radio counts as standard equipment, included in the car's base price.
Corporate Benefits
No state, territory, tribe, or city could set or keep its own requirement for AM radio access in cars. That block would start the day the bill becomes law, before the federal rule exists.
A company that built 40,000 or fewer cars for U.S. sale in 2022 would get at least four years to comply. Every other carmaker would get no more than two.
Each violation of the rule would carry a civil fine, counted separately for each vehicle. The Justice Department could also ask a court to order a carmaker to stop.
Transparency & Accountability
The department would post a report on its website before writing the rule. It would look at whether receiving AM signals hurts self-driving car technology or safety, and how carmakers could fix that.
In the years before the rule takes effect, a new car with no AM radio would need clear labeling telling the buyer. That labeling duty would start the day after the bill becomes law.
Eight years after the bill becomes law, the AM radio rule and the department's power to enforce it would both end. Congress would have to pass a new law to keep it going.
More about this bill
New cars would have to come with AM radio built in, at no extra charge. The Transportation Department would write that rule within one year of this becoming law. The rule would then take effect up to two years later. Small carmakers get longer. A company that built 40,000 or fewer cars for U.S. sale in 2022 would have at least four years. Until the rule starts, a new car sold without AM radio would need a clear label saying so. Carmakers could not charge a separate fee for AM access during that time. States could no longer set their own rules for AM radio in cars. Only the federal rule would apply. AM stations carry emergency alerts, and the bill links the rule to that alert system. Breaking the rule would bring civil fines, and the Justice Department could sue to stop it. Before writing the rule, the department would have to publish a report on the effects on self-driving car technology and safety. Congress's watchdog office would also study how well emergency alerts reach people in a crisis. The whole law would end eight years after it passes.
Congressional Summary
Congress's official summary of this bill still describes an earlier version of the text, so we have left it out here. You can read it on Congress.gov.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Passed House
- Action Date
- 2026-09-15
- Date Added
- 2026-09-09
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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