Congress takes next step to make daylight saving time permanent

Republican Representative Vern Buchanan of Florida, who introduced the bill in January 2025, said on Tuesday that clock changes disrupt schedules “for no good reason”.

Now that the House has passed the legislation, the Senate could soon take up its version of the bill. Florida Republican Rick Scott introduced an identical piece of legislation, also called the Sunshine Protection Act, in January 2025.

Since World War One, the US has set its clocks forward during the summer to have more daylight in the afternoon and to conserve electricity. The time-change is known as Daylight Saving Time (DST). Clocks roll back in the autumn each year to then follow standard time.

DST, which also helped conserve fuel during the first world war, was unpopular with farmers and was repealed after the war. It returned during World War Two, and legislation standardising clock-changing across the country passed in 1966, although some states, including Hawaii and Arizona, and US territories Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, have opted out.