For the past 80 years, a ritual takes place across most of America every spring and fall: moving clocks an hour ahead or an hour behind, namely daylight saving time or standard time.
However, much to everyone’s surprise, the Senate unanimously approved a measure on March 15 to make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year.
The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the House of Representatives is taking a much more deliberate approach.
“It’s an important step, but I look forward to hearing from other members,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the No. 5 Democrat in the House .
“We were unexpectedly sent this bill by the Senate. Now, we’re trying to absorb it,” he told The Hill.
Members of Congress have long been interested in daylight saving time’s potential benefits and costs since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The proposal will now go to the House, where the Energy and Commerce Committee had a hearing to discuss possible legislation.
The bill would make daylight saving time permanent, eliminating the hated twice-a-year ritual of moving clocks back and forward by an hour.
During the fall and winter, it would lead to an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon but cause the sun to rise an hour later in the morning.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said she has been getting an earful about the plan from both sides of the debate since the Senate abruptly passed it with virtually no notice.
“It’s gonna be dark until like nine o’clock in the morning (in Seattle),” Jayapal noted.
