This bill requires the Secretary of Transportation, working with FEMA and the FCC, to write a rule ordering that passenger motor vehicles include devices that can receive and play AM broadcast stations as standard equipment. The rule must be issued within 1 year of the law and apply to vehicles made after the rule's effective date. The rule must make AM access easily accessible to drivers and may be met by equipment that receives digital audio AM broadcasts (but not all-digital AM). Small manufacturers (those that made no more than 40,000 passenger vehicles for sale in the U.S. in 2022) get a longer compliance timeline.
The bill also requires that vehicles made after the law but before the rule takes effect must have clear labels telling buyers the vehicle does not include an AM receiver, and manufacturers may not charge extra beyond the base price for AM access during that interim period. States and localities are barred from making their own rules about AM access in vehicles once this law is in effect.
The Attorney General may sue to stop violations and civil penalties under existing motor vehicle penalty law apply to violations of the required rule. The Comptroller General (GAO) must study how to send emergency alerts to the public, including the role of passenger vehicles and AM stations, consult many stakeholders, brief Congress in 1 year, and deliver a report 180 days after the briefing. The Secretary must report to Congress at least every 5 years on the rule's impacts. The Secretary's authority to issue the rule ends 10 years after the law is enacted.
No publicly available information on costs or budgetary effects in the bill text or metadata.
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