A coalition of Congress members put forth the “AM For Every Vehicle Act”, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that the bipartisan nature of the bill was a shock to political observers.
“Well, I got to say, number one, for Ed Markey and me to introduce a bill together in the world of Washington is a pretty shocking thing because, look, (Sen. Ed) Markey (D-MA) and I agree on very, very little,” said Cruz on his Verdict podcast through iHeartMedia. “And the most conservative member of the Senate, along with one of the, if not the most liberal member of the Senate, joining together, I think that kind of freaked a lot of observers out in Washington.”
Cruz said the measure was important to him because he felt the avenue needed to remain for certain topics and voices to still have a platform.
“I don’t know what his motivation was, but look, for many Democrats, they are in favor of all sorts of mandates, and so they’re often willing to mandate that a manufacturer provide all sorts of things,” said Cruz. “As a general matter, I’m pretty skeptical of mandates.
“And so on many things, we don’t see eye to eye, but in this instance, the emergency response factor persuaded me. The viewpoint discrimination targeting talk radio, in particular, that moved me significantly. I don’t want to see important voices in free speech silenced, and I think pulling AM radio out of automobiles would have done that. And so I agreed to sign on and the two of us rolled it out together.”
Cruz and Markey weren’t the only legislators to show support for the bill. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and J.D. Vance (R-OH), as well as Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Bruce Westerman (R-AR), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) all co-sponsored the act.
Should the “AM For Every Vehicle Act” be passed into law, it would require automakers to include the band in each make and model, without passing the cost of the equipment onto customers. It would also require vehicles without the service to be given a warning label to show consumers that the car was not equipped with AM radio.