Daylight saving time 2024: Will Sunshine Protection Act make DST permanent?
The Sunshine Protection Act would make daylight saving time permanent but the bill has yet to make it through a vote in the House. For now, the clocks will spring forward at 2 a.m. on March 10.
Is Daylight Saving Time here to stay?
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March 10 marks the beginning of daylight saving time when most across the U.S. set their clocks forward by one hour, throwing everyone off schedule temporarily until we all readjust.
Federal law allows individual states to not observe daylight saving time, but states cannot make daylight saving time permanent.
Over the past few years, there have been several attempts by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to make daylight saving time the year-round standard through the Sunshine Protection Act.
The Sunshine Protection Act was first introduced in January 2021 to make daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time. Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, follow year-round standard time and would not be affected by the law.
To become law, the bill needs a majority vote in both the House and Senate before getting to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. However, over the course of 2021 and 2023, both attempts to get the bill to the president failed to get a vote in the House.
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There have also been attempts to make standard time permanent.
The Coalition for Permanent Standard Time based in Arizona, which is on permanent standard time, advocates for the U.S. to end clock changes.
Explained: What is daylight saving time and why we turn our clocks back
Daylight saving time, or DST, allows for an extra hour of light in the evening during the warmer months.
What's the status of the Sunshine Protection Act
In March 2023, Rubio reintroduced the bill in the Senate and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) introduced the companion legislation in the House.
"This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done," Rubio said in 2023.
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While the bill has earned a few more cosponsors in the Senate since last March, it hasn’t made it out of the House Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce.
Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, joined as cosponsors of the bill in November.
This year, the Sunshine Protection Act has yet to be reintroduced in the Senate or the House. For now, the clocks will spring forward at 2 a.m. on March 10.