Washington — The House voted Tuesday to adopt daylight saving time permanently across the United States, advancing a long-running effort to eliminate the ritual of changing clocks twice a year.
The measure, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, was approved 308 to 117. Beyond locking in the one-hour springtime shift, the legislation would let states remain on standard time if they already have an exemption in place before the federal law takes effect. Hawaii and most of Arizona currently observe standard time all year.
“I don’t really know anybody who wants to change the clock anymore,” Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey said Monday while the House Rules Committee reviewed the proposal.
Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, the bill’s sponsor, said Tuesday that the seasonal clock changes upend daily routines “for no good reason.”
Supporters contend that ending the clock changes would benefit sleep patterns, public health and the economy while giving Americans more evening daylight throughout the year. Opponents warn that darker winter mornings could create health and safety concerns.
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where its prospects remain uncertain. Senators passed a comparable bill in 2022, but the House never brought it up for consideration. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who previously led the push in the Senate to make daylight saving time permanent, urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “bring this bill to a vote as soon as possible.”
President Trump has taken varying positions on the issue over time, at different points supporting both the elimination of daylight saving time and making it permanent. In May, after the bill cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Trump said he would sign the measure if it reached his desk.
Congress first established daylight saving time in 1918 to extend usable daylight and conserve energy during World War I, and it was revived during World War II. Lawmakers briefly made daylight saving time permanent in 1973, but reversed course only months later after public support faded. The current schedule — beginning daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March and ending it on the first Sunday in November — was put in place under President George W. Bush.
“Permanent daylight savings time was repealed within a year because it didn’t work,” Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania said Monday during the Rules Committee meeting. “We all enjoy the extra hour or so of sunlight in the summer, but when people are considering this, they need to consider the extra hours of darkness in the winter.”
