Sponsors (35)
The bill removes twice-yearly clock changes and preserves state flexibility while shifting daylight into evenings year-round, trading widespread convenience and more evening light for darker winter mornings that raise safety risks and create commerce and administrative disruptions.
State and local governments (and their residents) can avoid twice-yearly clock changes and -- where applicable -- retain prior time practices, reducing scheduling disruptions for public services and avoiding forced schedule shifts for affected states.
Workers and schoolchildren in most areas get later evening daylight year-round, which can reduce evening energy use and increase opportunities for after-school and recreational activities.
Children, commuters, and other morning travelers will face darker winter mornings under permanent DST, increasing risks for morning commutes, school start-time safety, and related health/safety impacts.
Businesses and interstate services (transportation, broadcasting, and commerce) may face disruptions because changing federal time definitions complicates scheduling and coordination across states and time zones.
Federal agencies, employers, and state/local governments will incur administrative costs and operational work to update systems, schedules, and regulations to the new statutory time definitions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes current daylight saving time permanent by shifting statutory time-zone definitions one hour closer to UTC and repealing the limited annual DST period, while preserving prior lawful opt-outs.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Vernon G. Buchanan · Last progress January 3, 2025
Makes daylight saving time permanent across the United States by changing the statutory time-zone definitions to shift each zone one hour closer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and repealing the statute that limited daylight saving time to part of the year. It preserves a carve-out allowing States or areas that had lawfully opted out of switching their clocks before the law takes effect to continue observing either their prior standard time or the new revised standard time. Changes are technical updates to federal time definitions (including a conforming renumbering of a subsection) and do not include new funding or program authorizations; they take effect by changing the text of existing federal time statutes.