The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent in the United States, sending the legislation to the Senate for consideration. The vote Tuesday follows a growing sentiment against the twice-yearly time change, which many find disruptive.
The bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, would end the practice of shifting clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall. An Associated Press-NORC poll last year indicated that only 12% of American adults favored the semi-annual time shift, with nearly half opposing it. Proponents of a permanent time, including organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, argue that a single, consistent time aligns better with natural daily rhythms.
However, the U.S. has experimented with permanent daylight saving time before, with less than successful results. In 1973, Congress enacted a law establishing permanent daylight saving time as a trial, intended to run from January 1974 to April 1975. Public outcry led to its repeal in October 1974, after less than a year. A primary concern during that period was the prospect of children traveling to school in darkness during the shorter daylight hours of winter. While school start times have shifted later in some areas in recent years, potentially mitigating this concern, the historical public opposition remains a significant factor.
Kevin Birth, a professor of anthropology at Queens College who studies cultural concepts of time, recalled the period vividly. "I had to get up for school and it was like it was midnight. It was just pitch black and it remained pitch black into the school day," he said, describing his experience as an elementary school student at the time.
Experts suggest that if the U.S. were to adopt permanent daylight saving time again, adjustments to the current time zone structure might also be necessary. The existing four time zones cover vast geographical areas, leading to significant variations in sunrise and sunset times between the eastern and western parts of each zone. Adapting these zones could be a necessary consideration for a successful transition to a permanent time.