This is a bipartisan bill protecting the government's ability to transmit emergency notices on what is inarguably the best available technology to do it.
Saving lives takes precedence over your political identity, I hope. Thankfully both sides of the Senate think so.
I'm glad you weren't involved in their decision. You seem to have lost sight of what's important.
If the Left pushed to rearrange the band and won, then there would be something to criticize. Now we have to redo signage? Or we're all less safe? For what? To silence a handful of people? To give the automaker lobby a win by saving $5 per a car? I doubt they care so much.
The Left has no reason to do anything other than what they did. Approve it.
If I were in Congress, strictly from a technical standpoint, I'd be ambivalent before knowing more about cost.
Your "If the Left" analogy is silly. The "Left" isn't pushing to eliminate AM radio. It was deemed incompatible with EVs and the market was making a decision.
I didn't say they were. You're making a straw man argument. I literally said the opposite, that they agreed with Republicans in protecting the safety of Americans.
> I question your claim that presecing AM radio in EVs costs only $5
I'll double down on that point. The radio retails, shipped, for $9. [1] Those are consumer prices on individual, discrete units, with additional plastics, documentation, packaging, separate warehousing costs, freight, etc.
It's obviously much cheaper than $5. I've grossly overestimated the cost of an AM radio.
[1]. https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Pocket-Compact-Transistor-Ra...
Why not NOAA? Because existing signage is already in place for the current spectrum arrangement.
Now we have to replace signage across 50 states? No thanks. I don't listen to AM radio. You don't either.
Why do you care?
Calling someone skeptical of Republican motives a mindless zealot is... Zealous.
If it were midnight and a Republican told me the sky was dark, I wouldn't say it's bright out. But I'd take a peek to check. There is not good faith to be had with that party.
Skepticism is fine. Killing people because you "doubt the other party" has no place in society.
That kind of decision making, that ignores safety, should more rightly be met with jail time, not leadership in a democracy.
Thankfully for the rest of us, both parties can see that.