On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would permanently end daylight saving time. It is called a bill Sun protection lawand sponsored by two Republicans, Brett Guthrie and Gus Bilirakis.
It appears to stem from something President Trump promised shortly after his second term.
The Republican Party, which has a small but powerful constituency, will do whatever it takes to repeal Daylight Savings Time! The implementation of daylight saving time is inconvenient and very costly for our people.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2024
However, this bill does not save daylight saving time. That would shut him down — though Trump has since reconsidered his position and become a recent springtime saver regular.
Either way, passing the bill will put an end to this abomination:
It was daylight savings perhaps originally thought of by a New Zealand entomologist George Hudson realized that he lost two precious hours collecting insects during the longer summer days because they were in the morning. He felt that the extra hours should just be put into the evening so he could walk the lawns after dinner instead of waking up earlier. For non-entomologists, the time could be used “for cricket, gardening, cycling or any outdoor activity,” he said.
It was later adopted in the United States not to save daylight saving time, but for that, of course wartime productivity. So the time warp is a holdover from the First World War.
Finally, removing the most annoying nuisance in the universe—everyone’s hated bi-annual clock—from American life would generally be beneficial. Unfortunately, switching to permanent daylight saving time instead of permanent standard time is pointless and childish.
It closes at 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 PM like solar noon, the point at which the sun is theoretically straight overhead. And the American Academy of Sleep Medicine he says“The switch to permanent daylight saving time will delay exposure to morning light, making it harder for children and teenagers to wake up, learn and travel safely to school on dark winter mornings.”
Locking it does what daylight saving time does in the summer, but year-round: it steals daylight from the morning to give it to the night. The result would be a truly eerie, unnaturally late sunrise in the dead of winter.
For example, in Chicago, where the winter sun is the last of the year currently around 7:18amthe sun wouldn’t rise until 8:18 at the latest, which is terrible. The benefit of moving daylight all morning would be a winter solstice at 5:31 PM instead of 4:31 PM. The thing about winter days is that they are very short and you can’t collect bugs no matter what you do with your watch after dinner in the winter.
But if the Senate passes this bill, we’ll be stuck with it forever. Oh well. It’s less stupid than the current system.
The Senate actually passed a version of the Sunlight Protection Act back in 2022but failed at Home. This time, the bill has more obvious opponents like Tom Cotton, a permanent daylight saving time hater. Delivered a He spoke on this topic last yearsays in part:
“If permanent daylight savings time becomes the law of the land, it will turn winter into a dark and dreary time for millions of Americans.
By turning the clocks back one hour in the winter, permanent Daylight Saving Time would push the winter sunrise to an absurdly late hour, depriving Americans of the morning sun that is essential to our safety and well-being.”
All of that is true, but it’s better than changing our clocks.
