No AM Radio Act—But That’s OK
One of the items that proponents were trying to squeeze into the ill-fated original continuing resolution bill this week was the so-called “AM in Every Automobile Act”…this is the one that would have mandated AM radio to be included in every car.
I’ve told you before that I think this is a good idea, and not just because I work for an AM radio station. The AM band is fully tied to the Emergency Activation System, and having greedy manufacturers eliminate AM in your car because they want to sell you their audio services truly makes us less safe.
Generally, I don’t like government telling business what to do…but in this case, as noted before, there’s a public safety component.
But while I believe in the provisions of that measure, I am glad it was not part of the pork-laden failed CR…because it really has nothing to do with funding government, and to have it snuck in there with a bunch of bad ideas would have been bad form.
The AM radio bill—like all the other sketchy stuff they tried to cram into 1,500 pages—should rise or fall on its own merit. And it looked like they had enough votes in hand to pass it.
Sure, now proponents will have to start all over with a new Congress, but that’s fine. Just do things the right way, and not include these hideous random unrelated provisions in a funding bill. Actually, just return to regular order and have the spending bills passed before the fiscal year starts…not when half of it is over.
That’s why Congress is thought of so poorly by citizens—it’s a reputation well earned.
