The Senate on Tuesday unanimously voted to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, a measure that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent across the U.S.
The legislation, which was first introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) in March 2019, now heads to the House. Rubio said he does not have any assurance the House will advance the measure but said “it’s an idea whose time has come,” according to CNN.
The bill earned bipartisan support in the Senate, including several Republican and Democratic cosponsors. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island was the lead Democratic sponsor, while Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon quickly backed the measure as well.
“You’ll see it’s an eclectic collection of members of the United States Senate in favor of what we’ve just done here in the Senate, and that’s to pass a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent,” Rubio said on the Senate floor. “Just this past weekend, we all went through that biannual ritual of changing the clock back and forth and the disruption that comes with it. And one has to ask themselves after a while why do we keep doing it?”
“If we can get this passed, we don’t have to keep doing this stupidity anymore,” he added.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) said, “Yes!” when the measure passed on the Senate floor. Sinema’s native Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
If passed, the change would not take effect until November 2023 in order to accommodate the transportation industry’s schedules that run on the existing time and are planned far in advance.
The passage comes after Rubio and Markey penned an op-ed for CNN last week calling to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, saying the biannual time change is “an inconvenience to people everywhere.”
“We can’t always get bipartisan agreement in Congress these days, but here’s one thing we can agree on: we could all use a bit more sunshine,” the pair wrote. “That’s why we’re working together in the US Senate to make sure we end the practice of ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’ by making daylight saving time permanent.”
The op-ed raised concerns that dark afternoons in winter can negatively impact mental and physical health and that changing clocks twice a year can disrupt sleeping patterns.
“The rate of heart attacks spikes by 24 [percent] in the days following ‘spring forward’ in March, according to a 2014 study from the University of Michigan. Another study, published in 2016, found stroke rates may also increase by eight percent,” the senators wrote. “Year-round daylight saving time could also decrease the likelihood of fatal car accidents, which jump six percent in the days following the time change, according to a 2020 study from the University of Colorado.”
“It’s really straightforward: Cutting back on the sun during the fall and winter is a drain on the American people and does little to nothing to help them,” they added. “It’s time we retire this tired tradition. Tell your senators to lighten up and back our Sunshine Protection Act.”
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