There’s a whole lot of daylight between the House and the Senate — literally.
The House voted last week to make daylight saving time permanent, marking the latest congressional foray into the decades-old battle over whether the U.S. should change the clocks twice a year.
But despite the sizable bipartisan vote, the bill — known as the Sunshine Protection Act — is showing few signs of making headway across the Capitol, with scores of senators representing Midwestern and northern states lining up against it.
“I think it’s pretty strong,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said of the level of opposition, adding that the bill’s prospect of passage is dim.
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While many issues fall along party lines, the fault lines in the fight over daylight saving vs. standard time are largely geographic. While coastal states would be the beneficiaries of a full year with more daylight later in the day, midwestern and mountain states would feel more impacts.
The lack of sun in the early morning hours when children are leaving for school in the morning is a chief concern.
Under permanent daylight saving time, cities along the westernmost parts of the eastern, central and mountain time zones would not see the sun rise in the winter until later in the morning. Some cities, including Pierre, S.D., and South Bend, Ind., would not see the sun until after 9 a.m. on some days.
“Have you ever seen any issue that people are more passionate about and that divides the country more by region than that one?” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told NOTUS about changing the current system. “It’s got a lot of opposition.”
Leading the charge is Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the No. 3 Senate Republican, who has made clear he would block any attempt to pass the House bill via unanimous consent.
The effort to lock the clock in favor of daylight saving has been a windy road in recent years. A bill backed by former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) passed somewhat surprisingly with a unanimous vote in 2022.
Cotton revealed in a floor speech last year that he did not object at that time because there was a “miscommunication,” as he expected another senator to do so. He also said he had not “adequately communicated to my staff the depth of my opposition” to the measure.
The bill died in the House.
Proponents of daylight saving once tried again to pass it unanimously last year, but Cotton blocked it, arguing they were trying to put “a sunny face” on the proposal.
More than a dozen senators from both parties have voted against the daylight saving shift recently in the Senate Commerce Committee: Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Todd Young (R-Indiana), Thune and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi).
Even proponents of the measure don’t see a path at present.
“No, Tom Cotton’s going to block that,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) said.
Tuberville also quipped that more daylight would give him more time on the golf course. When asked how many more rounds he’d get in, Tuberville laughed and conceded: “Quite a few.”
Also dooming the bill is that it would not allow individual states to opt out of permanent daylight time. They would have already needed to pass a bill to observe permanent standard time. The only two states to do that are Arizona and Hawaii.
“I just don’t think we want a mandate,” Thune said.
The push to lock the clock one way or another stems from the unpopularity of the pair of clock changes during the year. According to an AP-NORC poll taken in October, only 12 percent support the current system compared to 47 percent in opposition. Forty percent were neutral.
Congress passed a law establishing permanent daylight saving in the 1970s, but it was repealed less than a year later due to the dark mornings.
“In Minnesota, Michigan and the Dakotas, you’re going to have schoolchildren getting mowed over waiting for the school bus in the dark,” Wicker said. “I’m surprised the House passed it by such an overwhelming majority.”
Another thing standing in the way is the crowded to-do list on the Senate floor. Ahead of the August recess alone, the chamber is expected to deal with the nominations of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department, Jay Clayton to become Director of National Intelligence and acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to head the department full-time. Passing a larger package of lower-level nominations is also in the works.
The Senate is also hoping to move other items, including a reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a Russia sanctions package and a cryptocurrency regulatory bill. Further complicating the calendar is that memorial services for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) in Washington and his home state are slated for the end of July.
Amid the spirited debate, there are also members who simply don’t care one way or another.
“I don’t wake up or go to bed thinking about it. I know it’s religion for everybody … but it’s not religion for me,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina). “Just tell me what time to set my clock.”
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