Marco Rubio reintroduces bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

There’s no time to waste here.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent and end the tiresome, twice-a-year adjusting of the clocks. 

“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid,” Rubio said. “Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get it done.”

A previous version of the bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023, unanimously passed in the Senate last year but languished in the House of Representatives for months. 

If the bill is signed into law, daylight saving time, which begins in March, would become permanent, and Americans would no longer have to turn their clocks back an hour in November. This would mean longer winter days and later summer sunrises.

The United States first adopted daylight saving time in 1918 to help conserve energy during World War 1, although there’s little evidence supporting the theory.  

In recent years, there’s been a growing movement to do away with the twice-a-year temporal changeover. 

A 2022 poll by Monmouth University found 61 percent of Americans wanted to stop switching the clocks every spring and fall. 

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called for the nation to stay on permanent standard time, which would mean changing the clocks one final time in November, over concerns for people’s health.

“Mounting evidence shows the dangers of seasonal time changes, which have been linked to increased medical errors, motor vehicle accidents, increased hospital admissions and other problems,” said Jennifer Martin, a licensed clinical psychologist and president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “Restoring permanent, year-round standard time is the best option for our health and well-being.”

Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL), who introduced similar legislation in the House, boasted that there a plenty of economic and health benefits that come with making daylight saving time permanent. 

“Florida lawmakers have already voted to make daylight saving time permanent in my home state and Congress should pass the Sunshine Protection Act to move Florida and the rest of the country to year-round daylight saving time,” he said.