A sweeping bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives moved Tuesday to end one of America’s most disliked seasonal rituals, voting to freeze the nation’s clocks on daylight saving time permanently.
By a lopsided 308 to 117 tally, representatives approved the Sunshine Protection Act, marking the furthest the proposal has advanced in years of repeated attempts on Capitol Hill.
Under the bill’s terms, clocks would remain locked one hour ahead — the same shift that currently kicks in every spring — eliminating the twice-yearly switch altogether.
States holding existing exemptions to run on standard time year-round would keep that right once the law takes hold.
Two states already fall into that category. Hawaii and most of Arizona currently stay on standard time throughout the year, a practice the bill would preserve for them going forward.
Momentum for the measure built during a House Rules Committee session Monday, where Democratic Rep.
Frank Pallone of New Jersey signaled broad public fatigue with the current system. “I don’t really know anybody who wants to change the clock anymore,” Pallone said.
Florida Republican Vern Buchanan, who authored the legislation, echoed that frustration on the House floor Tuesday, framing the biannual adjustment as pointless disruption. Buchanan said the practice throws off schedules “for no good reason.”
Backers of the bill cite a range of expected upsides, from steadier sleep patterns to broader economic gains, alongside longer evening daylight stretching across all twelve months of the year.
Not everyone is convinced. Critics of the plan caution that locking in daylight saving time would plunge winter mornings into extended darkness, creating fresh risks for public health and safety.
Tuesday’s vote sends the bill to the Senate, where its prospects remain far from certain despite the chamber’s own history with the issue.
Senators actually passed a similar proposal in 2022, only to watch it die when the House declined to take it up — a stall that effectively reset the clock on the entire effort.
Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who previously championed the push in the Senate, wants Majority Leader John Thune to avoid a repeat of that outcome. Murray urged Thune to “bring this bill to a vote as soon as possible.”
Where President Trump stands has fluctuated over time. He has at various points called for scrapping daylight saving time entirely and, at other points, for cementing it permanently. Most recently, after the bill cleared committee in May, Trump signaled he would sign it into law should it land on his desk.
America’s experiment with daylight saving time stretches back more than a hundred years, originating in 1918 as a wartime energy-conservation measure during World War I.
The government revived the practice again during World War II for similar reasons.
A permanent version was actually tried once before. Congress locked in daylight saving time in 1973, only to abandon the experiment within months as public opinion soured.
The scheduling framework used today — starting the second Sunday in March and ending the first Sunday in November — took shape under President George W. Bush.
That earlier failure loomed over Monday’s committee debate. Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon pointed directly to the 1973 reversal as a cautionary tale.
“Permanent daylight savings time was repealed within a year because it didn’t work,” Scanlon said, adding, “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.”
For now, the bill’s fate rests with the Senate, where a floor vote is far from guaranteed given the chamber’s track record on the issue.
