In mid-March, the Senate made a rare move to swiftly enact bipartisan legislation. The goal: making sure most Americans would no longer need to change their clocks twice a year by making daylight saving time permanent. The Sunshine Protection Act (S. 623) passed the Senate by voice vote but still needs to pass the House.
If it becomes law, the bill would make the time change permanent in November 2023 in order to accommodate segments of the transportation industry that already have schedules set through then. Currently daylight saving time, where clocks are set an hour ahead of standard time, is observed in the U.S. from March to November, while standard time is observed during the remaining four months of the year.
The bill’s supporters argue that it will put an end to the needless headache of switching the clocks back and forth and potentially spur economic growth. Detractors, however, argue that making daylight saving time permanent could pose potential health risks.
“I know this is not the most important issue confronting America, but it’s one of those issues where there’s a lot of agreement,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the bill’s sponsors, said on the Senate floor before the vote. “If we can get this passed, we don’t have to do this stupidity anymore. Pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come.”
Rubio has long advocated for making daylight saving time permanent, having introduced the bill several times before its passage this spring. When reintroducing the bill in 2021, Rubio pointed to several potential benefits of daylight saving time, including a 2015 Brookings Institution study that found a 27% reduction in robberies and a study by JPMorgan Chase & Co. that found a 2.2%- 4.9% increase in economic activity. Other research has found increased activity among children, pedestrians and cyclists as a result of additional daylight hours.
Another longtime supporter of the move and cosponsor of the bill, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), also argued that the practice is outdated compared with its start in 1918 as a wartime effort to conserve fuel that would go to electric power. “Americans’ lifestyles are very different than they were when daylight [saving] time began more than a century ago,” Whitehouse said in a statement when the bill was introduced last year. “Making daylight [saving] time permanent will end the biannual disruptions to daily life and give families more daylight hours to enjoy after work and school.”
Several industry associations, including those representing tourism and athletic groups, also support the move. “The bottom line is that daylight saving time is good for business and commerce across the United States,” Lyle Beckwith, senior vice president of government relations for the National Association of Convenience Stores, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March before the bill passed the Senate.
Meanwhile, sleep advocates say there are potential health risks caused by daylight saving time. For example, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) supported the move to end changing the clocks twice a year, but it advocated for a move to permanent standard time, which would allow for more daylight in the morning and less light at night, aligning with peoples’ circadian rhythms.
“Unfortunately, today’s quick action by the Senate allowed for neither a robust discussion nor a debate,” AASM said in a statement after the Senate vote. “We call on the House to take more time to assess the potential ramifications of establishing permanent daylight saving time before making such an important decision that will affect all Americans.”
The House has so far not brought legislation up for a vote. Several representatives have spoken out against the speed at which the Senate bill passed and vowed to take more time reviewing the proposal. “I don’t know that many members have really thought through it,” Rep. John Yarmouth (D-Ky.) told The Hill. “Now what will happen is you’ll get all of this outpouring of studies and people say, ‘Yeah, we agree you shouldn’t change twice a year, but what is it, standard time or daylight time?’” Yarmouth added that the longer Congress takes to decide on the matter, “the chances of passage decline.”
Some representatives have stated that they are more concerned with other issues, such as the war in Ukraine. “I’m really thinking about dying people, and I’m thinking about what’s going on in Ukraine,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told reporters. “We just had [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr Zelensky] here. I don’t give a damn about what people think about it,” she said of the Senatepassed proposal.
