By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) – Daylight saving time would stay in effect year-round under a U.S. House proposal that advanced on Thursday, reviving an idea that Americans weary of biannual clock switching have long supported but has repeatedly fizzled in Congress.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would likely implement the change as part of a five-year transportation bill.
Supporters of the measure say the time shift causes sleep disturbances, greater workplace injuries and more car crashes. They also believe brighter evenings would spur more economic activity during winter.
President Donald Trump praised the vote on social media, saying 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.”
The bill still must pass the full U.S. House, and then the U.S. Senate would consider whether to take up the measure, which faces opposition from Republican Tom Cotton and others.
Cotton has said it would result in absurdly late winter sunrises and force children to go to school in darkness in much of the country. The law would allow states to opt out.
Representative Vern Buchanan, who has put forward the idea every year since 2018, proposed it again this year. The plan is popular in the lawmaker’s home state of Florida because it would allow more evening hours of play on golf courses and sports fields.
The U.S. Senate voted unanimously in March 2022 for the move but the House never voted on the measure.
Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, said permanent daylight saving time is “better for safety and will boost New Jersey’s tourism industry. Let’s stop changing the clocks twice a year.”
Daylight saving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year – has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s.
Year-round daylight saving time was used during World War Two and enacted again in 1974 in a bid to reduce energy use. But it was deeply unpopular and repealed later that year.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
