WASHINGTON (TNND) — House Republicans are reviving a bill that would end the United States’ semiannual tradition of changing clocks and make daylight saving time permanent across the country, restarting the debate over whether Americans should have more sunlight in the morning or the evening.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are planning to include language from the Sunshine Protection Act in a larger transportation funding package, the Washington Post reported, a move that could bring the long-running issue back to the House floor.
While the bill would make daylight saving the national standard, some states would be allowed to opt out and observe year-round standard time.
Nineteen states have already passed bills sunsetting the practice of changing clocks but cannot implement it without Congress, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. More than a dozen others have or are considering bills related to seasonal time changes.
States that want to adopt permanent daylight saving time need an act of Congress, but can adopt year-round standard, as Arizona and Hawaii have already done.
Wide swaths of Americans on both sides of the aisle are opposed to switching their clocks in the spring and fall but cannot agree on whether they’d prefer more daylight in the mornings or evenings, which has created snags for Congress to make changes and resulted in the current system staying in place.
Polling has found the public is widely supportive of ending time changes, but little consensus on what to make the permanent system. A YouGov survey from March found 64% of U.S. adults want to stop changing clocks, including most Republicans, Democrats and independents. At least 63% of adults in the survey supported ending the practice regardless of how early they wake up on weekdays.
Most Americans in the survey said they would prefer permanent daylight saving time with later sunrises and sunsets at 43%, while 28% said standard time with more light in the morning and less in the evening.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle but primarily representing states on or near the coasts have advocated for permanent daylight saving time and have the backing of President Donald Trump, who has pushed Congress to pass a bill.
“Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post last year.
But Trump has also acknowledged Americans are split on what the best system would be despite several pushes to move toward permanent later sunsets.
“It’s a 50/50 issue, and if something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it,” Trump said last March. “It’s something I can do, but a lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way. It’s very even. And usually, I find when that’s the case, what else do we have to do?”
Congress has steadily increased the length of daylight saving time and has gotten closer to making it permanent in recent years but has not been able to get a compromise across the finish line. A previous version of the Sunshine Protection Act passed the Senate in a surprise vote in 2022 but stalled out in the House over concerns about how permanent daylight saving would affect winter mornings.
The U.S. briefly tried year-round daylight saving time in the 1970s during an energy crisis but cut the experiment short after widespread public backlash and concerns about kids going to school in the dark.
The Senate tried to pass the Sunshine Protection Act via unanimous consent last year, but it was blocked by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. Cotton and other lawmakers from the central U.S. voiced concerns their constituents would be forced to deal with sunrises as late as 9 a.m. in the middle of winter.
“If permanent daylight savings time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said on the Senate floor at the time. “The darkness of permanent savings time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.”
Supporters of ending clock changes point to potential health and safety benefits. Several studies have found car crashes and fatalities along America’s roads are more likely in the weeks after a time change. Various health groups have said changing clocks has links to cardiac issues and other risks to public health and safety.
Some sleep physicians have also argued permanent standard time is the best solution and would help improve mental and physical health, including during a pair of hearings in each chamber last year examining the issue.
Advocates for permanent daylight saving time argue it would increase economic activity during evening hours and give people more time to enjoy sunlight.
Some lawmakers have proposed meeting in the middle with moving clocks by 30 minutes instead of the full hour, though a bill introduced this year has not moved since being referred to a House committee.
It’s unclear whether the latest effort to lock clocks has any greater chance of making it to the president’s desk with debate among lawmakers and their constituents still unsettled.
