The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States, allowing states that currently exempt themselves from daylight saving time to choose between the new permanent standard time or the previous standard time.
Vern Buchanan
Representative
FL-16
The "Sunshine Protection Act of 2025" aims to establish permanent daylight saving time across the United States, effectively eliminating the need to change clocks twice a year. This bill repeals the provision allowing for standard time and adjusts time zone calculations accordingly. States that previously opted out of daylight saving time are given the option to choose between the new permanent daylight saving time or the previous standard time. The act also updates cross-references to ensure legal consistency with these changes.
Sunshine Protection Act of 2025: Get Ready for Permanent Daylight Saving Time
The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 is all about making daylight saving time (DST) the new normal across the United States. Instead of switching our clocks back and forth, this bill locks us into DST permanently.
Time Warp: What's Changing?
The core change is ditching the old system of temporary daylight saving time (Uniform Time Act of 1966, Section 3). The bill also tweaks the way time zones are calculated. For example, what was previously a 5-hour difference from a reference point will now be a 4-hour difference, and so on (Act of March 19, 1918). If you are in a state that used to ignore daylight saving time, you now get a choice: stick with the new, always-later time, or go back to how things were before this bill (SEC. 2).
Real-World Clocks: How This Affects You
Imagine this: no more losing an hour of sleep in the spring or gaining one in the fall. For most of us, it means evenings stay brighter later, all year. If you're a delivery driver, that might mean more working hours with daylight. If you're running a retail store, it could mean customers have more daylight time to shop after work. But if you're someone who starts work super early, you might be doing it in the dark more often.
The Flip Side: Potential Challenges
While more evening light sounds great, permanent DST isn't without its quirks. Think about those in industries that rely on specific timings, like transportation, and how this might impact their schedules. For some, it could be a schedule nightmare. The bill also raises some health questions. Our bodies have natural rhythms tied to sunlight, and messing with those rhythms could have consequences. The bill does give states that previously opted out of DST a choice, recognizing that one-size-fits-all might not work (SEC. 2). Finally, there's the question of whether this will actually save energy, which is one of the original arguments for DST.
Big Picture
The Sunshine Protection Act aims to simplify things by locking in daylight saving time year-round. It's a trade-off: more light in the evenings, but potentially trickier mornings and some open questions about how it will all play out in practice.