Daylight Saving Time Bill Stalls Again in Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Senate briefly took up a long-stalled effort on Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly practice of switching clocks, but again failed to reach consensus.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and other senators went to the floor to push for passage of the bill first unanimously approved in March 2022.

"The American people love having an extra hour of sunlight," Scott said.

But Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he would oppose any effort to fast-track the bill.

Congress has debated the issue for years. It held a legislative hearing earlier this year and won support from President Donald Trump for the change, but does not appear any closer to agreement.

Standard time resumes on Sunday in the United States.

Year-round daylight saving time was used during World War II and enacted again in 1974 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo, but it was unpopular and was repealed later that year.

Cotton said that the bill's proponents are pushing Congress to repeat a mistake that would create absurdly late winter sunrises and force children to go to school in darkness in much of the country.

The legislation would let states choose which time they want to remain on, but some worry that would lead to a patchwork of time zones across the country.

Daylight saving time — putting the clocks forward one hour in the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings — has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s, but proponents have pushed to make it year-round.

Supporters of remaining on daylight saving time argue it would lead to brighter evenings and more economic activity in the winter. Critics say it would force children to walk to school in darkness.

Proponents of eliminating daylight saving time say twice-annual changing of clocks leads to sleep disturbance, health issues, and more car crashes.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted the sharp divide, pointing to "very real and complicated issues and countervailing arguments on both sides. ... There is widespread agreement on locking the clock, but where to lock it?"