Effort to Make Daylight Savings Permanent Fails in Senate

The U.S. Senate failed to reach consensus on Oct. 28 to advance a bill that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, once again stalling the bipartisan effort to end the practice of resetting clocks twice a year.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the lead sponsor of the “Sunshine Protection Act,” took to the Senate floor to make the case for a quick passage. Nearly two dozen states, he said, are ready to join Florida in choosing to “lock the clock” should his bill become the law of the land.

“This bill is about states’ rights,” Scott said. “It allows the people of each state to choose what best fits their needs and the needs of their families.”

As Florida’s governor at the time, Scott signed legislation in 2018 to end clock switching across the Sunshine State, pending approval at the federal level.

Scott was joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a ranking member on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. In 2022, Whitehouse spearheaded an identical bill, which cleared the Senate but was never put to a vote in the House.

Quoting from President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter of a fixed, year-round time, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who cosponsored the 2022 bill as a Florida senator, Whitehouse joked that while he doesn’t often agree with them, “I sure do agree about this.”

Scott was also joined by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who said that ending clock changes aligns with the broader effort to improve Americans’ health.

“A lot of Americans are taking their health more seriously by trying to eat healthier and to get more sleep,” Tuberville said on Tuesday. “Switching the clock back and forth is the exact opposite of [the] Making America Healthy Again movement that [Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has championed.”

Not all senators were convinced. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) voiced his opposition, blocking Scott’s request to advance the bill by unanimous consent.

“If permanent Daylight Savings Time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and abysmal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said.

Among supporters of the move to end clock switching, there is debate over how to do it, whether by adopting permanent Daylight Saving Time, which creates later evenings but darker mornings, or permanent Standard Time, which does the opposite.

–Bill Pan | Epoch Times