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Time is running out for the House to pass legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S., after the Senate shocked the nation earlier this year and unanimously approved the measure.
The bill, titled the Sunshine Protection Act, skated under the radar for months following Senate passage, but it is back in the spotlight this weekend as Americans prepare to “fall back” and change their clocks to standard time until March, taking an hour of daylight away from winter mornings.
Lawmakers have just 17 legislative days — the period known as the lame-duck session — remaining to pass the bill and send it to President Biden’s desk before the current Congress comes to a close, and both chambers are forced to reset the clock and reconsider the controversial change.
But the likelihood of lawmakers pushing the bill over the finish line in the final stretch is dimming.
“I wouldn’t expect it to happen this time,” Rep. Kewisi Mfume (D-Md.), who is in the process of becoming a co-sponsor of the bill, told The Hill. “My gut sense tells me that there are going to be a number of other things that happen, depending on which party dominates the election.”
The Senate sent shockwaves throughout the country in March when the chamber approved the Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent, a fast-track procedure that allows bills to pass if all members are on board and no objections are made. Buzzfeed News, however, reported that some Senators were surprised to learn that the measure had passed through the special process.
The legislation, which has bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, would do away with the biannual changing of the clocks and make daylight saving time the law of the land all year round.
Under current regulations, the sun is scheduled to rise in New York at 7:16 a.m. on Dec. 21, the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. But under the Sunshine Protection Act, New Yorkers would see the sun rise at 8:16 a.m. that day.
The sunset would also be kicked back. Empire State residents are scheduled to see the sunset at 4:31 p.m. on Dec. 31. With the Sunshine Protection Act, however, sunset would be pushed back to 5:31 p.m.
Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of ditching the ritual of changing the clocks. A Monmouth University poll conducted in March found that 61 percent of respondents want to do away with the practice, while 31 percent are in favor of maintaining the status quo.
But there are disagreements about deciding what the law of the land should be: daylight saving time or standard time.
