Yet another attempt to make daylight saving time the year-round standard in the U.S. is heading to the House floor.
The bill headed to a vote, Rep. Vern Buchanan’s Sunshine Protection Act, is one of six pieces of legislation currently in Congress that attempt to end the biannual clock-changing ritual. Some want to freeze on standard time and others on daylight saving time, a dispute that has helped dash every bid for a single, year-round time standard.
All of the other time-change bills in the House are stuck in the Energy and Commerce Committee. Not only did Mr. Buchanan’s bill make it to the full House, but the Senate counterpart by Sen. Rick Scott cleared the Commerce Committee.
The bills by Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Scott, both Florida Republicans, mirror now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s legislation to put the U.S. on year-round daylight saving time, which failed when he represented the Sunshine State in the Senate.
Daylight saving time legislation has multiplied in this congressional session, splitting into competing sects depending on which time lawmakers want to lock in.
Of the six bills, two pass daylight saving time decisions to the states without enacting a federal mandate.
The Daylight Act, sponsored by Rep. Celeste Maloy, Utah Republican, would allow states to elect to observe daylight saving time for the duration of the year.
Another, led by Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, would let states opt into daylight saving time year-round — closing a gap in current law, which already lets states opt out of daylight saving time standard time year-round, as Arizona and Hawaii do, but does not offer the same option for making daylight saving time permanent.
One “split the difference” compromise, the Daylight Act led by Rep. Greg Steube, Florida Republican, would move clocks forward a half hour from standard time, rather than a full hour for daylight saving time, and end the biannual changes.
His attempt to get the bill to the floor failed in the last Congress.
A new bill in the current Congress would set a permanent standard time. It has emerged as the medical establishment’s preferred option.
The Sunshine for Our Kids Act, introduced Thursday by Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon, Pennsylvania Democrat, and Pat Harrigan, North Carolina Republican, would keep the U.S. on permanent standard time. It is backed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Medical Association and the National Sleep Foundation.
A majority of the bills are driven by Eastern Time lawmakers. Geography has historically split opinions on daylight saving time. Critics — often from northern and interior states — warn that under permanent daylight saving time, winter sunrise could come as late as 9 a.m. in some locations, a concern that has stalled consensus even among lawmakers within the same state.
President Trump has advocated for Mr. Buchanan’s bill, celebrating its clearing the Energy and Commerce Committee in May.
“I am going to work very hard to see The Sunshine Protection Act signed into Law. It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” he said on Truth Social. “It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it! We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
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