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Posted on 07/13/2026 9:30:45 PM PDT by Red Badger
Congress is finally putting America’s twice-a-year clock ritual on the floor.
The House will vote Tuesday, July 14, on legislation that would stop the spring-forward, fall-back cycle and make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country.
For millions of Americans, that means no more changing clocks in March and November.
No more resetting the oven after every time change.
No more watching sleep schedules, school mornings, work routines, and family calendars get knocked sideways because Washington keeps moving one hour back and forth.
Rep. Vern Buchanan announced the floor vote Monday.
Rep. Vern Buchanan says his Sunshine Protection Act will receive a House vote Tuesday after years of stalled attempts to end the biannual clock change.
The Florida Republican’s bill would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, keeping later evening sunlight throughout the winter instead of returning most of the country to standard time in November. It would preserve a path for states to remain on permanent standard time through state law.
Buchanan says 19 states have already enacted legislation or resolutions supporting permanent daylight saving time, but federal law prevents them from making that switch alone. The House bill has 34 bipartisan cosponsors, while Sen. Rick Scott’s companion measure has 18 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate.
President Trump has backed the push and repeatedly called for an end to the twice-annual disruption. The proposal also arrives with serious committee momentum after the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced it by a 48-1 vote in May.
That 48-1 vote tells you how unusual this issue has become in Washington.
Members of Congress can fight over almost anything.
They are having a much harder time defending a system nearly everybody finds annoying.
The Energy and Commerce Committee took that message to the Rules Committee on Monday, arguing that it is time to lock the clock.
The slogan is simple. The bill itself has a few details worth understanding.
Congress.gov shows that H.R. 139 would repeal the temporary daylight-saving period in the Uniform Time Act and move the nation’s time-zone standards forward by one hour.
In practice, most states would remain on the time they currently observe from March through early November. Winter evenings would stay lighter, while winter sunrises would arrive an hour later than they do under the current system.
The text protects states and areas that already exempt themselves from daylight saving time, including Hawaii and most of Arizona. Those jurisdictions would be allowed to retain their existing standard-time arrangement or choose the new advanced standard under state law.
The bill does not become law merely because the House passes it. The Senate must approve the same policy, and President Trump would then need to sign it before Americans can throw away the old spring-forward and fall-back reminders.
The remaining argument is no longer mainly about whether the clock changes should end.
It is about which clock America should keep.
Buchanan’s bill chooses permanent daylight saving time, giving families more light after work and school but darker winter mornings.
A competing bipartisan bill would choose permanent standard time, giving the country earlier winter sunrises but earlier sunsets.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon introduced that alternative last week with Republican Rep. Pat Harrigan, calling it the Sunshine for Our Kids Act.
Their proposal would also abolish the twice-yearly switch, but standard time would become the national default. States could then choose permanent daylight saving time through their own legislatures instead of receiving it automatically from Washington.
Supporters point to sleep and circadian-rhythm groups that favor brighter mornings, especially for children traveling to school. They also cite the country’s brief 1974 experiment with year-round daylight saving time, which was cut short after dark winter mornings produced a public backlash.
That competing bill proves how far the debate has moved. Lawmakers on both sides now agree that changing the clocks is the problem; they are fighting over whether the permanent answer should favor morning light or evening light.
President Trump’s position is closer to Buchanan’s.
He wants the clock changes gone and has supported keeping daylight saving time year-round.
That would give Americans more usable evening light during the darkest months, which supporters connect to outdoor activity, retail traffic, family time, and fewer evening crimes and crashes.
Critics counter that later winter sunrises would be rough on students, early-shift workers, and anyone driving before dawn.
There is no law Congress can pass that creates another hour of sunlight.
It can finally decide where that sunlight belongs and stop making the entire country reset itself twice a year.
Tuesday’s vote will show whether the House is ready to make that choice.
If the Sunshine Protection Act passes, the Senate will be the next clock Washington has to beat.
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Prefer standard time, but will take a fixed clock.
This time please warn Mitch when the fall back minute arrives. Save him some hospital time.
Bkmk
“Prefer standard time, but will take a fixed clock.”
____________________________________________________________
Standard time better reflects a normal person’s circadian rhythm. It’s particularly important for school aged children, and allows their brains time to grow.
End daylight saving time
Just pick one but it will never pass.
Personally I like it to be 12:00 noon when the sun is high in the sky and my sun dial is oriented straight north-south.
DST fo’ evah! Oh yeah!
I doubt it will pass.
Pick standard, or savings, or half way in between,
I don’t care just quit changing it!
Latitude makes a yuge difference.
S. Fla. is quite different from Minot, ND.
with DST High Noon —> Almost-high Noon
Fingers crossed
I’m not for this, let’s leave it like it is.
“Prefer standard time, but will take a fixed clock.”
____________________________________________________________
Standard time better reflects a normal person’s circadian rhythm. It’s particularly important for school aged children, and allows their brains time to grow.
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I’ve worked rotating shifts. It’ll fuzz your brain for at least a couple of weeks, if not a month.
Yeah I’d prefer standard but I’ll take what I can get at this point.
actually I became quite used to knowing my clock in my trucks was an hour late 6 months a year!!
My feelings exactly!
Ih great, then we’d be synchronized with Newfoundland.
CC
Better make sure the software gets updated.
That's what I think also. There's nothing requiring that our US time be a whole integer number of times zones from London/GMT/UTC/Zulu time. Numerous countries (including big ones like India) and a few states already have fractional offset from UTC. The computers can accommodate this without much issue, maybe a software update.
What the hell, Congress? Frickin' COMPROMISE!!
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