In March, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill that would have done away with biannual clock changes by making daylight saving time permanent. 

Despite initial enthusiasm from some House members, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and as Americans prepare to wind their clocks back this weekend, the legislation is stuck in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 

If it is not passed in the next two months, it will die when the current Congress ends and then need to be reintroduced.

In a statement to Spectrum News, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., chairman of the House committee, said, “We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet.”

“There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time, and if so, what time that should be,” Pallone said. “These opinions don’t break down by party, but instead by region.”

The Senate, however, was in lockstep on the issue when it approved the bill, introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. The legislation was passed using the procedure of unanimous consent, a way of fast-tracking a vote if there is no opposition.

Rubio argued then that “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.” He also said most Americans want to do away with changing their clocks.

Asked this week about his bill being stalled in the House, Rubio said in a statement to Spectrum News: “This isn’t a partisan or regional issue, it is a commonsense issue. States all around the country are passing laws to make DST permanent, but Washington, D.C. needs to act. I don’t know why the House refuses to pass this bill – it seems like they are rarely in session – but I will keep pushing to make this a reality.” 

A CBS News poll in March found that eight in 10 Americans prefer to keep a consistent time year-round, but there is not strong agreement on whether it should be daylight saving time or standard time. Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they prefer daylight saving time, 33% said they liked standard time, and 21% percent said they’d rather keep the status quo.

Pallone’s statement indicated there are members of the House, too, who’d prefer to stick with standard time or not make a change at all.

Proponents of the Sunshine Protection Act argue it would give adults and children more time to enjoy the sunshine during colder-weather months while Americans would avoid losing an hour of sleep when clocks “spring forward” in March.

Alice Pyclik, a research consultant with Talent Plus, a talent management consulting firm, said permanent daylight time would likely benefit the productivity and well-being of workers and prevent workplace injuries related to losing an hour of sleep in the spring.

“The implications for employee satisfaction are especially important at a time when companies are struggling to retain top talent,” Pyclik told Spectrum News. “[Daylight Saving Time] requires workers to make adjustments to their schedules that they likely view as unnecessary, and unfortunately, that negativity could spill into their work. Of course, the effect won’t be permanent, but even temporary losses in productivity, well-being, and satisfaction are important and should be considered by policymakers.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine would, too, like to see an end to all the clock-changing, but it endorses permanent standard time instead. It argues standard time aligns best with people’s circadian rhythm and benefits public health and safety.

“Standard time is a better option than daylight saving time for our health, mood and well-being,” AASM President Dr. Raman Malhotra said in a statement just after the Senate passed its bill. “By aligning our clock time more closely with the timing of the sun, standard time helps synchronize our bodies with our natural environment, which is optimal for our daytime functioning and nighttime sleep.”

The United States first adopted daylight saving time in 1918, only to have Congress repeal it a year later. It resurfaced just after World War II, but there was a complicated patchwork of varying policies from city to city and state to state until Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966. The law, however, allowed states to opt out of daylight saving time. Today, Arizona, Hawaii and U.S. territories observe permanent standard time.

The Uniform Time Act does not allow states to enact daylight saving time year-round.

Facing an energy crisis in December 1973, Congress passed a bill to put the U.S. on daylight saving time for two years starting the following month. While 79% of Americans approved of the change, they quickly soured on it, in part because children had to commute on dark mornings to school in the winter. Three months after the law was passed, just 42% of Americans supported permanent DST, according to The New York Times. 

Congress voted to restore standard time the following fall.

“We don’t want to make a hasty change and then have it reversed several years later after public opinion turns against it — which is exactly what happened in the early 1970s,” Pallone said in his statement.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states have passed measures to adopt permanent daylight saving time if Congress were to allow for such a change or, in some cases, if surrounding states enacted matching laws.

The Sunshine Protection Act would take effect in November 2023 if approved by Congress.