Congressional lawmakers are once again pushing to eliminate the biannual ritual of changing clocks, with a House committee advancing legislation Thursday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the nation.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Sunshine Protection Act by an overwhelming 48-1 margin. The legislation would likely be incorporated into a broader five-year transportation package.
Advocates for ending the clock changes point to research showing the time shifts disrupt sleep patterns, lead to increased workplace accidents, and contribute to more vehicle collisions. They argue that extended evening daylight during winter months would also stimulate economic growth.
President Donald Trump endorsed the committee’s action on social media, stating 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.”
The legislation now moves to the full House for consideration before heading to the Senate, where it encounters resistance from some lawmakers including Republican Tom Cotton and others.
Cotton has argued the change would create unreasonably late winter sunrises and force students to walk to school in darkness across much of the nation. The proposed law includes provisions allowing individual states to withdraw from the system.
Representative Vern Buchanan, who has championed this initiative annually since 2018, has reintroduced the proposal once more. The concept enjoys strong support in the lawmaker’s home state of Florida, where it would extend evening recreational time for golf and outdoor sports.
The Senate previously passed similar legislation unanimously in March 2022, but the House never brought that version to a vote.
Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, expressed support for permanent daylight saving time as “better for safety and will boost New Jersey’s tourism industry. Let’s stop changing the clocks twice a year.”
The current daylight saving system, which moves clocks forward one hour during summer months, has been standard practice across nearly the entire United States since the 1960s.
The nation previously experimented with year-round daylight saving during World War Two and again in 1974 as an energy conservation measure. However, the 1974 implementation proved highly unpopular with the public and was reversed within the same year.
