Rep. Vern Buchanan has spent years asking Congress to stop making Americans reset their clocks twice every year. The Florida Republicans may finally get his vote when the House considers legislation next week to make daylight saving time permanent.
“My Sunshine Protection Act will bring us one step closer to ending the outdated and unpopular practice of changing our clocks twice a year. 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.
“Ending the clock change is a commonsense reform that will improve everyday life for millions of Americans. I want to thank Chairman Guthrie and Subcommittee Chairman Bilirakis for advancing my longstanding legislative priority today and look forward to it becoming law.”
The Sunshine Protection Act was included as a provision within an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (AINS) to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, which was marked up and sent to the House floor by the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.
The Sunshine Protection Act would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide. In Florida, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation in 2018 to become the first state in the nation to adopt permanent DST. Across the U.S., 19 states have since enacted legislation or passed similar resolutions.
Buchanan's proposal cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee 48-1. President Donald Trump supports it, Democrats and Republicans have signed on, and after decades of complaints and promises, Washington has reached the point where failure would require more effort than action.
Most Americans have no deep ideological attachment to changing clocks. Only 12% want to keep the current system; a majority prefer permanent daylight saving time, while many others want permanent standard time.
The larger agreement is clear: pick one and stop the bloody switching!
Congress had heard the same complaint for years. People lose sleep, parents struggle to reset children's schedules, workers drag themselves through Monday morning, and nearly every household discovers one clock that never got changed.
Modern phones automatically update; human bodies don't.
The fight has lasted because lawmakers agree on the problem but argue over the solution. Buchanan's Sunshine Protection Act would keep the extra evening light year-round. Supporters point to recreation, tourism, retail activity, and fewer disruptions caused by the spring and fall changes.
Sleep specialists prefer permanent standard time; morning sunlight helps regulate the body's internal clock, and darker winter mornings make waking, commuting, and sending children to school harder.
Their concern deserves more than a shrug, because permanent daylight time would push sunrise well past 8 a.m. in some northern communities.
America has tried year-round daylight saving time before. Congress approved it during the 1970s energy crisis, but public support collapsed when families faced dark winter mornings. President Gerald Ford signed legislation ending the experiment in Oct. 1974.
Lawmakers should study the history without using it as another excuse for paralysis. Congress could adopt permanent daylight saving time, choose permanent standard time, or give states more room to decide. More than 800 daylight-saving bills and resolutions have moved through state legislation recently.
People aren't waiting for Washington to discover the issue.
The Senate passed a permanent daylight saving bill by unanimous consent in 2022, only to watch it die in the House. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced another bipartisan version in 2025. Congress keeps getting close enough to claim credit without getting close enough to change anything.
Americans disagree about taxes, immigration, foreign wars, spending, abortion, guns, and nearly every major question placed before them. Ending the clock change may be one of the few remaining issues capable of winning broad support across party lines.
Congress should debate which permanent time works best, vote, and accept responsibility for the result. Another round of hearings followed by another quiet death would confirm what people already suspect: Washington can turn even widespread agreement into permanent delay.
The clock is running. Congress should finally do its job before Americans are ordered to change theirs again.
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