US House votes for permanent daylight saving time

WASHINGTON – The US House on July 14 voted overwhelmingly to make daylight saving time permanent, but the measure to spare Americans the semi-annual clock-changing that shortens winter days faces an uncertain path to enactment.

The measure, fittingly named the Sunshine Protection Act, passed on a 308-117 vote. Its fate is murky in the Senate, where one GOP leader said it was unclear whether it could move ahead and at least one Republican appears inclined to try to block it.

President Donald Trump has championed the effort to save an extra hour of daylight before nightfall and make the time zone permanent, describing the ritual of moving clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall a “ridiculous, twice yearly production”.

“We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day,” Trump wrote in a social media post in May. “And who can be against that.”

A sizable bloc of Florida Republicans in Congress is leading the charge on legislation that would do just that, mandating daylight saving time nationwide for the entire year.

Vern Buchanan of the Tampa Bay area is backing the Bill, and Anna Paulina Luna, another Tampa Bay-area Republican, co-sponsored it.

House leaders agreed to allow a vote on the measure this week as a sweetener for Luna in their efforts to persuade her to lift a legislative blockade she had maintained as she sought to force Senate action on a voting restriction bill Trump has championed.

Congress first passed the Standard Time Act in 1918 and established federal oversight of time zones. Then came the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which said states can observe daylight saving time from late spring to early fall.

The country’s clock-changing practices were last altered in 2005, with the enactment of bipartisan legislation that extended daylight saving time for several weeks.

Most states comply, though there are exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona abide by standard time year round, as do Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

19 states have moved to make daylight saving time permanent, though those laws have not taken effect because federal law does not currently allow people to live in daylight saving time year-round.

Not everyone agrees with the proposed change. Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon and Pat Harrigan backed an alternative bill earlier in July that would mandate standard time – which Americans observe between November and March – be used all year.

“Morning light is an environmental cue to set our body’s internal clocks and promote alertness.” Scanlon said. “And dim evening light tells our bodies it’s time to sleep.”

Though many Americans find they are groggy and tired after changing their clocks, sleep experts warn that permanent daylight saving time would hurt, not help, sleep health.

The Coalition for Permanent Standard Time, an advocacy group, argues that the winter time zone aligns closely with the body’s circadian rhythm, which is its internal clock.

Should the Bill pass, state lawmakers could opt out of permanent daylight saving time in favour of year-round standard time if they enacted such legislation.

Buchanan has said the measure would give Americans all of the health and recreational benefits that an extra hour of sunshine bring, including more time outside and less seasonal depression. Florida’s legislature passed similar legislation in 2018, making it the first state to do so.

“The twice-yearly clock change is a relic of the past that no longer reflects the way Americans live, work and conduct business in the 21st century,” said Representative Gus Bilirakis.

It is not the first time Congress has grappled with turning back the clocks. The United States tried in 1974 to ditch the clock-switching, but went back to flipping the clocks twice a year following widespread discontent.

In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed then senator Marco Rubio’s bill to make daylight saving time permanent, but that bill died in the House.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Republican, noted on July 14 that the House had “hit the snooze alarm” back then on the Senate measure.

“We’ll see what happens when it gets here,” he told reporters at the Capitol, referring to the current House bill.

He would not say whether he backed the measure.

“Depends where you’re living in the country and the impact that it would be in your own home state,” Barrasso said. “So, it’s not as simple as what one state might like.”

Senator Tom Cotton, said in a floor speech in 2025 that he regretted not objecting to Rubio’s bill.

“By moving the clock back an hour in winter,” he said, “permanent daylight saving time would push winter sunrises to an absurdly late hour, depriving Americans of morning sunshine that’s essential for our safety and well-being.” NYTIMES

• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.