Standard time could become permanent in US under new bill, with some exceptions

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

07/13/26 11:14 AM ET


(NEXSTAR) – A new bill introduced in Congress could drastically change how we observe the twice-a-year practice of changing the clocks, even as a move to make daylight saving time permanent gains traction. For the last few years, there have been several attempts to make daylight saving time — the time we are currently observing — permanent. The Sunshine Protection Act passed through the Senate in 2022, but subsequent versions of the legislation haven’t been as lucky.

The House could vote on its version of the Sunshine Protection Act this week in a move that could end the twice-a-year changing of the clocks. The U.S. has long had a back-and-forth relationship with daylight saving time, with each attempt at making it permanent being rolled back a short time later.

But a bill introduced in the House last week could take a largely different approach. The bipartisan “Sunshine for Our Kids Act of 2026” was introduced by Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) and Pat Harrigan (R-NC). It calls for permanent standard time — the time we observe from November through March — in the U.S., with some exceptions.

While health experts agree that standard time is better for our health, most efforts in Congress and throughout the U.S. have focused on making daylight saving time permanent. Nearly 20 states have passed legislation to observe daylight saving time year-round, should Congress approve it. Only Hawaii and parts of Arizona observe standard time year-round.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5965517-standard-time-could-become-permanent-in-us-under-new-bill-with-some-exceptions/

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Link to draft BILL - H.R.9638 - Sunshine for Our Kids Act of 2026


RELATED - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143693290

[Blues Heron]

1. if it has to stay the same year round standard is the way to go.

[dem4decades]

10. Unless you like to do something after work in the evening.

[Blues Heron]

12. the early winter mornings though, no thanks

[FoxNewsSucks]

30. Jeez, just turn on a light.

[Blues Heron]

35. We tried that back in the 70s, the minute people got a taste of the reality of DST in January

They couldn’t wait to get back on standard, it was gone within a year.

[Katcat]

36. You're absolutely correct

I was in high school in the 70s and I remember going out in the dark to stand on a lonely country road waiting for the bus.

[chicoescuela]

52. Me as well, it was supposed to save energy consumption. Don't know if it did.

[FoxNewsSucks]

38. I was there.

Should never have been changed back.

[Blues Heron]

39. people hated it, cant blame them, it sucked the big one. Who wants to hustle out the door an hour early in winter

Just because snowflakes struggle with changing the clock twice a year.

[Dr. T]

48. For over 40 years, in winter,

I went to work in the dark and came home as the sun was dropping below the horizon. I desperately wanted at least one hour of sunlight after I got home. Daylight Savings Time would've provided that. Working people have a stake in this.

[Blues Heron]

49. i doubt anything has changed that would make people suddenly love winter DST

I suppose we could try it again, some people have to learn things the hard way

[Dr. T]

50. I'm going to go out on a limb here

and say that you never had a job that required you to arrive early and stay late.

[gay texan]

2. Good

The older i get the more the time change messes with me

[appmanga]

3. And in five years (or less) people will be howling to change it back...

...and in this age of digital clocks, many of which updated themselves, is this really something we need? Having a couple of after-work hours of daylight (at least in my time zone) in October and early-November counts as a good thing to me.

[tanyev]

9. Once Dems are back in power, Republicans will realize they hate it,

and blame Democrats for forcing it on the country.

😒

[Tumbulu]

18. No we won't - it is a hellish thing to put people through

totally unnecessary stress.

[Polybius]

27. But they did in the 70s

It was so unpopular they had to switch it back.

[Katcat]

37. It was not fun

Standing in the dark beside the road waiting for a bus.

[Tumbulu]

43. that is not true for CA- people have been trying to get rid of it since it began

and only Arizona, Hawaii and some part of Indiana figured out how to not participate.

In CA we have passed two referendums to get rid of it, but the feds have not let us out of participating in the hell of the ridiculous time switching that messes with all of the biological systems of our bodies. Totally stupid and unnecessary stress that is utterly preventable by not changing the time.

The six years that I lived in Arizona were so refreshing without the upheaval.

Where did they get rid of it only to bring it back?

[Polybius]

46. "Where did they get rid of it only to bring it back?"

Everywhere. I was too young to know about it, but in the 70s, a nationwide law passed. 5 years (or less) later, it was rescinded. Hopefully, one of the older members will fill you in on it. If not, I'll look it up after work and post it here.

[Tumbulu]

59. I am older and it did not happen in CA at all- we voted to get rid of it two times now

but have been ignored twice!

In the west, only Arizona and Hawaii have successfully figured out how to not participate in the madness. And they have kept it that way.

[Easterncedar]

53. I was in high school in western NY.

Sending kids to school in the dark was what people objected to. That’s why it was repealed. Year round standard time would work better than year round “daylight saving”.

[Tumbulu]

60. when was this? Thanks for the reply !

I have never figured out why the time can stay the same, but the busies and school hours have summer and winter hours. This everything is not disrupted needlessly for everyone.

[appmanga]

58. How fragile do you have to be...

...to have stress over a twice a year adjustment of an hour? There are people who have jobs where their shift changes EVERY week. That's stressful. And people didn't like it when we did it 50 years ago. The resuscitation of bad ideas is more of an American pastime than baseball.

[Tumbulu]

61. There are innumerable medical studies that prove how deadly these time changes are- this is not about fragility

but about ignorant people ignoring biology. And imposing their rigidity on the rest of us.

And most people just want the time to stay put.

Shift work is hell- I have done it and yes, it knocks a good decade off of people's lives.

But public policy is not meant to add to biological stressors - especially for no good reason whatsoever.

[appmanga]

64. And I guess you're a flexible biologist with stats to back your claims?

Lots of public policy isn't what I want. Waah!! They should change it because I'm stressed.

Yup. That makes sense.

[IbogaProject]

63. I don't mind the switch but there is statistical evidence against switching

I think risks of cardiovascular events and accidents both increase briefly after the time switch. I have no idea of the magnitude but what ever they measured was statistically significant. You'd have to quantify the happiness in the DST months vs the hazards of the brief switching windows measuring the outdoor recreation vs increased cooling vs slight increase in health costs at the switch. I'd say if we fix the clock we could just shift school times but nowadays many kids are driven to school by working adults compared to us born before the media driven fear about child safety reduced the practice of having kids walk or take school busses to school.

[Torchlight]

65. Sounds serious

Good luck!

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Seems like something you should allow each state to decide

Certainly, if the US (sorry, the GOTHS) decides to abolish the change, then allow each state to decide which of their current time zones they'll remain in; northern and southern states may well have different preferences. But why not allow states to remain changing, if they want to? Changing makes more sense in northern states (maybe except Alaska, which is so far north that sunrise and sunset vary far more than an hour change can take advantage of),

[RockCreek]

5. New England should change to Atlantic time

(with Canada's Maritime Provinces) of this were to happen. It is relatively far North with greater changes in daylight hours from season to season. On rainy days, it is dark by just after 4 PM in the winter. In the summer, it gets light out just after 4 AM.

[FadedMullet]

8. While I will agree with your proposal and it's intended purpose, adding a fifth time zone to America's consciousness....

......will cause our fragile social structure to collapse.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. Do you mean permanent Atlantic summer time, permanent standard time, or changing as Canada does? (nt)

[RockCreek]

56. I think the most important thing is stopping the twice yearly clock changes

The extremes at each end are too much this far East in the time zone. It was not as jarring living several hundred miles west of here.

I hope that BC ending time changes to stay on DST will encourage other Provinces to do the same. Jet-lagging tens of millions of people twice a year is unhealthy.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. Oh great.

BC just switched to permanent Dailight time.

That means, there would be a permanent 1 hour difference between BC and the Pacific zone in the US.

[FadedMullet]

7. If you "standardize" it all over the country, but have some exceptions, it isn't standardized. C'mon people, make up....

......your mind, one way or another. If we standardize the bi-annual switch (my choice) and people bitch about school kids going to school in the dark in Arizona, just tell them to change the school hours. And even go so far as to tell them that they can change the school hours again, in the middle of the school year, if their parents would just shut up.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Changing school hours for kids will require changing work hours for many parents as well. Very disruptive.

Better to pick standard time and stick with it.

PS: When I went to school in FL we had to get out of bed at 6:00 to catch our bus at 6:25. It was dark as night, and as cold as it ever got in FL. Jr. High and High School started at 7:00 and ended at 3:00. We hated it -- but local pols had decided that letting teens out of school at 3:00 provided lots of cheap labor for the local tourist industry, and that's what counted. Parents have no chance to change the hours in such a situation.

[FadedMullet]

44. Politicians in the back pocket of the tourist industry? Sounds like your bigger problem.

[Scubamatt]

11. With all that our country is facing . . . .

This is what our Congress is spending its time on?

[erronis]

13. Why not just leap forward an hour every year? After 24 years we'd be back at the same time!

I'm being silly. But it would be fun to watch.

[mdbl]

14. wonder what the "exceptions" are

[valleyrogue]

15. Standard time absolutely sucks.

Fuck any attempt to make it permanent year-round.

It just goes to show you these bums in Congress don't appreciate how millions of us enjoy the extra hour at the end of the day. They don't do an honest day's work to begin with.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. If you want an extra hour, get up an hour early. People who favor standard time are always told to just change

their hours -- why shouldn't the same apply to people like you who prefer an earlier day ??? Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

Try waiting for a school bus in the cold and dark between 6 & 7 AM in N. Florida and you'll grasp the objections a little better. Especially if you get hit by a car, which is so much more easily accomplished in the dark. FL loses a few students that way every year.

[Polybius]

25. Because those who prefer a later day are the vast majority

Majority (usually) rules.

[eppur_se_muova]

28. Not at all. According to whichever poll you read, a majority favors one or the other.

The differences from one poll to another are substantial, but never is the majority "overwhelming".

https://www.google.com/search?q=do+americans+prefer+standard+time+or+daylight+saving+time&udm=14

I would have thought that kids getting hit by cars in the dark would trump a moderate majority, but apparently I live in a different world from you.

[Polybius]

29. Americans get confused

I think you should try wording it like this: Do Americans prefer it to get dark later or earlier?

Not everything revolves around kids, I could care less about them going to school in the dark. They already do in parts of late Fall and Winter, and I like morning darkness anyway.

The only ones I've ever met to prefer DST are old folks that are proud of being early birds. Fair enough, they are entitled to their opinions.

Now with all that being said, I don't prefer either. I like the way it is now, just change it twice a year.

[FoxNewsSucks]

32. I'm tired of having to worry about other people's kids.

No one worries about my dogs.

And here, every morning, I see cars at every cross street idling with their kids inside waiting for the bus to get to that corner. Being light outside will make no difference.

[FoxNewsSucks]

31. extra hour of LIGHT outdoors

No one needs that at 4 am. We need it at 4 PM.

[slightlv]

19. I love the extra light at the end of the day...

but I'm one of those who votes for Standard Time as the norm. For millennia, our bodies have adjusted to the rising and setting of the sun. Many of us, some of us in particular, are truly thrown for loops by these time changes. My circadian rhythm has been thrown off for decades now, and I blame it at least partly on trying to adjust to what society says, rather than what the sun and moon tell me. Maybe I'm crazy... yeah, I am (at least a bit!)... but I feel the changes for weeks afterwards, even now that I'm retired and it doesn't really matter anymore. But my whole body, physically and emotionally, feels "off" for weeks. I find myself more unbalanced and tripping over the least little things, and concentration and memory is even harder than it normally is.

Like I said, I love the extra hour at night for daylight... but I think our bodies should be heeded with the caution warnings they give at each time change... like more heart attacks, more car accidents, etc.

Having said all that, I figure they're not going to do a damn thing about it this time, either. If it ain't good for business, it ain't gonna happen, IMO.

[maxsolomon]

20. The real issue is the North-South difference in daylight, not the time zones. No wonder it's a debate.

If I lived in San Diego or Brownsville, DST does nothing for me. Constant amounts of daylight with little seasonal shift.

But where I live at 47 degrees North, its 8.5 hours of daylight on the Winter Solstice, 16 on the Summer Solstice. I think DST is great. Even with DST, it starts to get light here before 5 this time of year. It's light nearly till 10.

[twodogsbarking]

21. Children out in the dark of morning is certainly a factor. Bombing them in daylight is easier.

I don't know if that is or not but I am ashamed to have had the impulse to write it.

[Cheezoholic]

22. 100% Standard time. This still twightlight at 11 pm crap just sux. Indiana never used to switch and when they finall did

Golfers became the enemy of the state, literally. Everyone to this day is convinced that was the single reason it was changed lol.

[PatrickforB]

23. Good. Long overdue. n/t

[Buddyzbuddy]

24. What about changing the school schedule to a winter schedule?

Start time 1-2 hours later. I imagine, they would like to "sleep in" during the winter. The amount of time in school would be the same with just a later start time. They might be more productive. At Spring break they can use the week to adjust to the new schedule.
Just a thought.

[Polybius]

26. I don't like it

While I prefer that we stay like we do now, even permanent DST is better than permanent Standard.

[PSPS]

33. It's been done before and abandoned shortly after

The only question is how high the pile of kids' corpses will be this time around.

[Tumbulu]

62. maybe in some places it was, but not in CA where we have voted via proposition to end it

but the federal government has never allowed us to opt out.

Just start school later in the Winter, problem solved.

[Danmel]

34. I have trouble driving at night

Especially with super bright headlights. And I'm not retired, so I much prefer daylight savings time.

[yonder]

40. Sounds like yet another use for our soon-to-be-foisted-on-us Space Mirrors.

Instant sunlight gratificaton for all people everywhere, wanted or not, just like the Gawds themselves intended.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143694919

[LudwigPastorius]

41. ..but, are they Jewish Space Mirrors?

[love_katz]

42. This is probably more performative BS from a do nothing Congress.

Or, they're trying to have something to offer the country before t h e mid-terms?
They certainly haven't gotten anything actually useful done.

I find myself wanting to shout: EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN, EPSTEIN!!!

[J_William_Ryan]

45. "Seems like something you should allow each state to decide"

Florida wants permanent DST bad so the tourists can stay out later and spend more money.

[question everything]

51. This proposed law does allow states to opt out

[Kali]

54. I though Indiana also had a single normal time?

This is one thing my state does right. I do not even "get" changing time twice a year. time is a stupid construct anyway, why fuck with it every 6 months? day is day and night it night, the lengths shift during the seasons no matter what a clock says.

[BumRushDaShow]

55. They changed to observing DST in 2006.

https://www.wabash.edu/technology/dst

What was weird was that IN is split between ET and CT.

I remember over 30 years ago, hopping a Greyhound bus from Cincinnati to Indianapolis and struggling with the bus schedule.

[Torchlight]

57. I'm remarkably nonchalant about DST.

In my chair, it could change monthly, yearly, or never again, and I'd mostly shrug, I have stronger opinions about coffee temperature than I do about it. It's one of the rare debates where I'm content with almost any outcome.