Daylight Saving Time Bill Passes House: Here's Why The Senate Might Block It

The Sunshine Protection Act, recently passed by the House with bipartisan support, aims to make daylight saving time permanent, eliminating the need for biannual clock changes.

The idea of ditching the twice-a-year clock change just took a real step forward in Washington, though it’s still far from a done deal. On Tuesday, the House voted 308-117 to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would lock the country into daylight saving time all year round, according to NBC News. That kind of vote count means it had support from both parties, not just one side pushing it through.

Here’s the basic idea behind the bill: instead of springing forward and falling back every year, the U.S. would simply stay on the time it currently uses between March and November. States wouldn’t be forced into it either. If a state wants to stick with standard time instead, it just has to make that switch official before the law kicks in.

CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t committed to putting the bill up for a vote. That’s notable because Thune has pushed back against permanent daylight saving time before. Still, when reporters caught up with him today he didn’t shut the door on it either.

Thune, who represents South Dakota, pointed to one part of the House bill he likes: it gives states a choice. States that already run on permanent standard time, like Hawaii and most of Arizona, could keep doing their own thing as long as they lock that in before the new rules apply. As Thune put it, he doesn’t want to see a strict mandate forced on everyone, especially since something similar was tried in the past and later got walked back.

Beyond that, Thune was pretty noncommittal. Asked whether the bill could actually gather the 60 votes needed to get past a filibuster, he told reporters that remains to be seen, adding that it’s not something senators have really dug into yet. And when asked directly if he’d personally back the bill, he didn’t give a straight answer, only mentioning that he’s from a colder, more northern state and that he’d voted against a similar version of the bill in a Senate committee back in April.

Cotton has been openly against permanent daylight saving time for a while now. That matters a lot procedurally. Normally, a bill like this could potentially skip ahead through something called unanimous consent, which lets the Senate fast-track a vote if every single senator agrees to it. But that only takes one senator saying no to shut it down, and Cotton’s willingness to filibuster means Senate leaders likely won’t want to burn floor time on a fight they know is coming.

Cotton’s concerns aren’t just political. He’s argued that pushing sunrise later in the day could put kids at risk since many would end up walking to school or waiting for buses while it’s still dark out. He’s also raised concerns for workers who start their days early, farmers, factory employees, construction crews, saying they’d be stuck starting their shifts in darkness too. In some parts of the country, sunrise already doesn’t happen until after 9 a.m. during daylight saving time, and stretching that further is exactly what worries Cotton and others who agree with him.

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