Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) are the latest politicians to voice their concerns about the proposed XM-Sirius merger. In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the Senators say that they believe the merger "could possibly undermine competition and harm the consumer if certain conditions are not applied."

McCaskill and Snowe recommend that if the FCC approves the merger, XM and Sirius should be held to a list of conditions that the Senators have laid out. First off, since the merged satcasters would hold a large amount of the radio spectrum, they should be required by the Commission to divest up to half of their spectrum holding. The FCC should also ensure "open access" from other manufacturers who would want to develop new satellite radio receivers and also make sure that the satcasters do not block automakers from including HD Radio technology alongside satellite receivers in vehicles.

The Senators also note that because satellite radio cannot replicate free, local radio programming, the FCC "should reaffirm its position" that XM and Sirius were licensed as national services. The Commission should prevent them from using terrestrial repeaters to allow different local content in different markets or "undermine" local news and weather information.