A bipartisan effort to establish permanent Daylight Saving Time is moving toward a full House vote after advancing past a major procedural step.
On Monday, the House Rules Committee set the stage for floor consideration of the Sunshine Protection Act, a proposal that would let states observe Daylight Saving Time throughout the year while still allowing them to opt out. The rule was approved by the committee in a 6-4 vote.
The legislation is backed by numerous lawmakers from coastal states as well as President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called on Congress to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and eliminate the twice-yearly clock change. That practice is followed in every state except Hawaii and most of Arizona.
Supporters say changing the clocks disrupts health and daily routines, while a year-round Daylight Saving Time schedule would help promote outdoor recreation, tourism, business activity and other economic benefits.
Under the current system, most Americans move their clocks ahead by one hour each spring to extend evening daylight, then turn them back by one hour in November.
“Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of this policy and want to end the practice of ‘springing forward’ and ‘falling back.’ Locking the clock all year long would have positive impacts on sleep schedules, energy conservation, motor vehicle safety, and our economy,” Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said in an opening statement Monday.
“In practice, this change would mean more time for people to exercise outside, visit family, attend concerts and sporting events, attract customers to their retail businesses, and more.”
“Floridians and Americans across the country are tired of the biannual time change, and the evidence is clear that permanent daylight saving time can improve public health, reduce traffic accidents, lower crime and encourage more outdoor activity,” Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., the bill’s author, said earlier in a May news release.
“Ending the clock change is a commonsense reform that will improve everyday life for millions of Americans,” he added.
The legislation’s momentum comes after the House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly passed the measure 48-1 in May.
“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,” Trump wrote following the Sunshine Protection Act’s advancement out of committee. “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!”
Roughly 20 states have already passed legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent if Congress were to authorize the practice. Alabama, South Carolina, Oregon, Maine and Florida are among those places.
But opponents, including several medical organizations, argue that permanent standard time — which provides more sunlight in the morning — would be the healthier option because it would more closely align with the body’s natural circadian rhythms.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., proposed amending the bill with language from her co-sponsored Sunshine for Our Kids Act, which would make standard time permanent nationwide. The amendment was quickly rejected.
Scanlon argued that permanent daylight saving time would pose significant health and safety risks by leaving more Americans — particularly children — in darkness during morning hours. She also pointed to the nation’s brief experiment with year-round daylight saving time in 1974, which Congress abandoned after widespread public backlash.
Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., was also the lone lawmaker to oppose the legislation during the Energy and Commerce Committee markup in May, citing concerns that year-round daylight saving time could negatively affect children’s health and sleep schedules.
Some conservative lawmakers have also argued that GOP leadership should be focused on what they describe as more pressing legislative issues, including legislation codifying Trump’s border security executive orders and the stalled SAVE America Act.
“Republicans are majoring in the minors — fiddling with the clocks while the country burns,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote Monday.
The House has already passed versions of the SAVE America Act multiple times, but the measure has struggled to overcome the Senate’s legislative filibuster.
The Senate unanimously passed a version of the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022, but it died in the House amid opposition, including from lawmakers who voiced concerns about darker morning hours in parts of the country during the winter.
